The 14-year-old sailors in WW1

ONE in three British sailors in the First World War was under the legal combat age of 18, archives show.

Analysis of more than 380,000 Royal Navy service records found nearly a third were underage volunteers.

The Registers of Seaman’s Services list each sailor’s name, date of birth, birthplace, vessel, and service number along with comments on appearance, conduct and disciplinary matters.

The records for 1900 to 1928, held at the National Archives in West London, have been digitised and are available on family history website Ancestry.

They reveal that a large proportion of sailors were boys aged 14 to 17 who rushed to enlist in 1914. Many would not have had a birth certificate in the early 1900s, making it easier to lie about their age, historians said.

The service of young boys, who also made up one in ten Army volunteers, is now recognised as a great tragedy of the bitter conflict.