Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Great War on The Wartime Memories Project Website
Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Great War on The Wartime Memories Project Website
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242381
Rfmn. Robert Barnett
British Army 1st Btn. Rifle Brigade
from:Stoke Newington, London
(d.19th Dec 1914)
5509 Rfmn. Robert Barnett of the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade was one of the youngest soldiers to be killed during WW1 at the age of 15 years and 6 months.
He, like so many others of his age got caught up in what some in 1914 were terming as 'The great adventure of their time'. Lying about his age and name he managed to enlist in the Army at the very start of the war just after his 15th birthday, which was made easy by the floods of volunteers to be processed, the fact that proof of age was not a requirement at the time and that the final decision was down to the judgement of recruiting officers.
Robert died during an action in the area of Ploegsteert Woods and is buried alongside others from his Battalion in the Rifle House Cemetery, Belgium.