Pte John Condon,aged 14,Waterford

arnhem44

Came across this interesting article about John Condon from Waterford whose age was given as 14 at the time of his death.John Condon was attributed with been the youngest soldier to die during the Great war
The CWGC to this day still list him as aged 14 at death

Article link
http://www.cwgc.co.uk/Condonevidence.htm

CWGC link
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=491331

Also other sites seem to give his age even less
http://www.aftermathww1.com/johncondon.asp

SlabMurphy

Well obviously the young fellas death was a tradgedy but surely it was totally immoral for to recruit a 14 year into an army.

arnhem44

Sure was but the link in the first post argue's that he was in fact some years older.

oncevotedff

SlabMurphy wrote: »

Well obviously the young fellas death was a tradgedy but surely it was totally immoral for to recruit a 14 year into an army.

Recruiting underage soldiers was commonplace. There's a 16 year old in one of the Plugstreet Wood cemeteries. There seems to be compelling evidence that Condon was 19 when he died and less compelling evidence (in my opinion) that Condon isn't even buried in that grave.

arnhem44

One would think that some of the Condon family would want to know the truth about there relative,if his age is in fact wrong or even his burial place then something should be done about it,with DNA sampling now available they can check who actually lies there.The MOD in Britain are wrong here in my opinion.