213670 Ptr. Sydney G. Lewis VC.British Army 106th Machine Gun Company Machine Gun Corps A 12-year-old schoolboy who ran away to join the Army and found himself at the Somme has been declared the youngest authenticated combatant of
The Great War. Pte Sidney Lewis enlisted in August 1915, and was fighting in the trenches of the Western Front by the following June. Sidney underwent six months of military training with his regiment before crossing the Channel. His exploits made the newspapers at the time, but the reports were considered inconclusive and until now were not corroborated by Army records, The Sunday Times reported.
The Imperial War Museum has now officially backed his claim after being shown a bundle of family papers including his birth certificate. The new evidence included the discovery that Sidney was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
Thousands of boys are believed to have lied about their age and signed up to fight in the First World War as waves of patriotic fervour swept the country. Richard van Emden, author of "Boy Soldiers of the Great War", who found the evidence that Sidney was awarded the medals, said the boy was deployed to France with the 106th Machine Gun Company and saw active service.
Records at the National Archives dated January 10, 1920 show Sidney G Lewis was on the roll of individuals entitled to the Victory Medal. It listed his current rank as lance sergeant and previous rank as private.
Mr van Emden said some boy soldiers were lured by the chances of adventure, while others thought the trenches could be no worse than factory work at home.
He told the newspaper: "Some parents were happy to have one less mouth to feed and some explained to their sons how to puff up their chests to meet the qualifying standard."
Frank Bardell, 94, Sidney's brother-in-law, who lives in San Diego, said he could not explain why Sidney's mother had not intervened earlier.
"I'm told he more or less ran away from home to enlist." Surviving relatives described him as a man who continued to ignore convention in later life. His son said he was a "forthright fellow" who "stood against authority".
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