FIVE-YEAR-OLD RECRUIT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIII, Issue 16, 25 August 1916, Page 7

FIVE-YEAR-OLD RECRUIT.

The youngest Briton to receive the Kmg's shilling is Stanley George rence, of Peterborough, England. He is five years old. His uncle was killed at the front last September and ever since tli< n Stanley has been filled with the desire to avenge him. He knew from his mother that he was below Army age but he decided to try to enlist. When he left School on Thursday, instead of going home to dinner, he went to the local recruiting: office and told the sergeant in charge all about it. The sergeant might have laughed at the boy or told him to call again in 1925), but he rose to the occasion. He took an imposing-looking Army form and wrote on the back; This is to certify that Stanley George Lawrence, aged five, offered himself for enlistment at Peterborough because the Germans killed) his uncle, but he was unable to fulfil the necessary physical conditions. This form, with tibe recruit's accustomary shilling, was handed to the boy and he was nearly as happy as if he had been in khaki.