Question
I am no expert at English labour law, but child labour was campaigned against before 22 January 1879. Below on the left hand side, these boys appear under 18. Did the British Army hire boys under 18?
Answer
Short Answer:
Yes.
Long Answer.
I note that the British navy had sailors with the rank of boys. In the 20th century boy sailors were 16 and 17 years old. The British navy also had officers in training - midshipmen - serving on ships aged 16 and 17.
A 16-year-old Midshipman drowned when HMS Victoria sank on 22 JUne 1893.
Since thousands of British sailors died at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, it is quite possible that about a hundred boy sailors and midshipmen aged 16 and 17 died there.
There were still boy sailors and midshipmen about British navy ships during World War II. On the mornng of October 14, 1939, German uboat U-47 sneaked into the British naval bae at Scrapa Flow and torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak. Of the 1,234 aboard Royal Oak, 833 died including an admiral and 126 boy sailors under the age of 18.
And during the 1870s the British army also had boy soldiers. British drummers were more or less officially all 18 or older like British privates. Boy soldiers were often trained as musicians inteneded to become drummers or buglers when they turned 18. British regiments also had bands, seperate from the field music (drummers, etc.) and boy soldiers who assisted the band members were often called "band boys". And boy soldiers were also apprenticed to regimental tailors.
This was different from the US army at the time, which didn't have a separate rank of boy. Instead some of the musicians (members of the field music, drummers, buglers, fifers, & trumpeters) were enlisted as adults and some enlisted as boys.
My research into drummer boys and other boys in the US Civil War indicates that the majority of them had officially recorded ages which were at least a year or so older than their actual ages at the time of enlistment. And I found examples where the enlisting officers recorded the ages as 18 when the boys were actually only 12 - and looked 12 too. That is an age exaggeration of 50 percent and 6 years. And I found an example of a boy with a recorded enlistment age of 18 who was actually only 9, an exaggeration of 100 percent and 9 years!
So if the officially recorded ages of boy soldiers in the 19th century British army were as exaggerated as those of boys in the United States Volunteers in the Civil War, they could have included some very young boys.
Donald R. Morris in The Washing of the Spears stated that drummer boys were as young as ten, and some people have criticized him for claiming that some of the boys at Islandhlwana were only 10. But I always interpreted it as saying that some British drummer boys during the period of 1850-1900 were as young as 10, which seems reasonable to me.
I believe that the official minimum age to enlist as a boy in the British army was 14 in the 1870s. British boy soldiers were recruited from the sons of serving soldiers, or from the school for the orphans of British soldiers, or from boys in city slums. I have read that the sons of British soliders tended to be stunted in their growth, and I have also read that in the 1870s 14-year-old boys in the London slums were often only four feet one or two inches tall. Thus it is quite possible that many British boy soldiers were very small compared to boys of the same age you might know.
I note that there were other boys at Isandhlwana besides those of the 24th regiment. A colonial mounted voluteer who was killed was 16 years old. There was a "boy Green" killed, a servant of Surgeon Peter Shepherd. I don't know if he was a soldier or a young civilian servant. N Battery, 5th brigade, Royal Artillery had three trumpeters on the rolls for a few days including the battle of Islandhlwana. At least one trumpetero would have accompanied the section of the battery which went with Lord Chelmsford, and atleast one trummpeter would have remained in the camp at Isandhilwana, but all three survived. And one of them later claimed to have survived Isandhlwana - if I calculated correctly, the battle would have been on his 16th birthday.
I have a copy of The Silver Wreath: Being the 24th Regiment at Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drif, 1879, 1979. It has short biographies based on the official records of all the members of the 24th present at Isandhlwana and/or Roarke's Drift. About a dozen of the privates, drummers, and NCOs at Roarke's drift had enlisted as boys, and I think that all of them were listed as 14 years old and about four feet seven to four feet nine inches tall when they enlisted as boys years befor the battle.
I note that some of the privates killed at Isandhlwana were still young. Privates George Ghost and Leonard Hankin, company G, Second battalion, attested at Aldershot on July 16, 1875, aged 14, and were thus aged about 17.5 to 18.5 at Isandhlwana on January 22, 1879. Private James Gurney attested at Chatham on December 20, 1877 aged 15, and so should have been between 16 years and 1 month old to 17 years and 1 month old at Isandhlwana.
There were four boys listed:
Daniel Gordon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, enlisted at Chatam on December 6, 1877, aged 13, and so should have been aged 14 years 1.5 months to 15 years 1.5 months at Islandhlwana. Note that he enlisted 14 days before James Gurney enlisted at Chatham.
Joseph S. McEwan, Company E, 2nd battalion, attested at Dover on April 20, 1877, age 14, and so was aged about 15.75 to 16.75 years at Isandhlwana.
In the first Battalion Boy Robert Richards is listed as killed 22/1/79. He has no date of attestation, but has a service number of 25B/265. He might possibly have been related to Private Richards, George, who should have been born about 1842-43 and thus would have been about 35.
If the 25B numbers were given in chronological order, Richards should have enlisted sometime shortly before number 25B/268. In the book the number 25B/268 is listed for Drummer Charles Andrews, attested at Brecon on June 6, 1874 aged 19, and also for Private James Lycett, attested at Liverpool on June 2, 1874 aged 20. If either is the correct number, Richards should have enlisted in late May or early June 1874 and should have been at least 18 at Islandhlwana if he was at least 14 when he enlisted. But if he was 18 or older why wasn't he already a private or a drummer?
Boy Thomas Harrington has no service number, no date of attestation, and no age listed. So there is no clue to his birthdate and his age at Isandhllwana. He might possbily be a relative of Private Denis Harrington who attested on January 11, 1862 aged 21 and so was born about 1840.
Paulie_D's answer quotes Wikipedia:
A widely reported incident at the Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, spelled the end of boys being sent on active service by the British Army. Part of the British force returned to their camp at night to find that it had been overrun by the Zulu army a few hours previously. An eyewitness reported that "Even the little drummer boys that we had in the band, they were hung up on hooks, and opened like sheep. It was a pitiful sight". Doubt has since been cast on this account, since the youngest drummer to be killed was 18, and the youngest boy present was 16.[11] Despite this, Charles Edwin Fripp's famous painting, The Last Stand at Isandlwana, shows a small blond-haired boy amongst the adult soldiers.[12] The US Army kept drummers and fifers with the infantry, until they were finally abolished in the field in 1917. Drums, like other instruments, were now only used for parades and ceremonies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummer_(military)
I doubt whether the British army stopped sending boys on active service because of the death of boy soldiers at Isandhlwana. I have seen a drawing from a newspaper of a British regiment marching into Zululand later during the war, and there are two boys to the left of one line of men who are only shoulder height to the men. Similary I have seen another illustration from later in the war showing a very small drummer boy leading a very tall Zulu prisoner. And of course I have to admit that drawings aren't as strong evidence as photos. I have found 2 sources claiming the presence of boys of the 94th regiment at the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit on 20 December 1880, though I hav enot found confirmation.
At the Battle of Colenso December 15, 1899, Bugler John Francis Dunne was wounded in action. Since he was born in 1884, he was probably 15, though he is often called 14. He survived the war, but I don't know for how long, since I have seen a newspaper article from decades later where someone claiming to be the real Dunne complains that he has seen several different newspaper reports of his death and burial over the years.
And I have read that when the British regular army went to France in 1914 the drummer boys accompanied their units into the field if not necessarily into battle.
Wikipedia says:
Doubt has since been cast on this account, since the youngest drummer to be killed was 18, and the youngest boy present was 16.[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummer_(military)
And it gives the source that the youngest soldier present was 16 as:
Ian Knight, Zulu Rising: The Epic Story of iSandlwana and Rorke's Drift, Pan Books 2011 ISBN 978-0330445931
I am certain that Ian Knight is a much greater expert on the Anglo-Zulu War than I am. But until someone finds evidence used by Knight that The Silver Wreath is incorrect in recording an age at attestation for Daniel Gordon that make him 14 or 15 when killed, or any sort of evidence that Thomas Harrington was born before Janaury 22, 1863, I will think there is no proof that all the boy soldiers at Isandhlwana were 16 or older.
I note that it is believed that Boy Daniel Gordon and Private James Gurney who enlisted at Chatham no more than a few days apart in 1877 were friends and that they had both been in the workhouse at West Watford, Hertfodshire.
There was a plaque in the workhouse chapel dedcated to the memories of Gordon and Gurney which has disappeared, and a replacement plaque has been created which honors the memories of five boys of the 24th regiment who died at Isandhlwana. They include James Gurney amoung the boys. If Gurney was in fact promoted to private before January 22, 1879, it should have been very recent and some records might not show his most recent rank - which in fact he shouldn't have been old enough to be promoted to.
There is also a birth record for James that has come to light which is recorded for July 1863 and further evidence to suggest he enlisted on 20th December 1877, not the 29th.
https://www.westwatfordhistorygroup.org/2020/03/two-watford-workhouse-boys.html
If James Gurney was born sometime in July 1863 he would have been about 15 years and 5 or 6 months old on January 22, 1879. I note that his age of 15 at attestation on Decemter 20,1877 makes James Gurney born sometime between December 21, 1861 and december 20,1862. So possibly there were 2 James Gurneys born in the region in the early 1860s, or possibly his age at attestation in the official records was an exaggeration.
...and the youngest boy present was 16.[11] Despite this, Charles Edwin Fripp's famous painting, The Last Stand at Isandlwana, shows a small blond-haired boy amongst the adult soldiers.[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummer_(military)
Here is a link to an image of the painting, in which the boy has light brown and not blonde hair:
Enlarging the image makes the boy appear about 170 mm tall on my screen, but his foot is hidden by a clump of grass, making him taller. The helmetless sergeant before him stands about 240 mm tall. So the boy is at least 0.7 as tall as the sergeant. If the sergeant is 66 inches (5 feet 6 inches) to 72 inches (6 feet) tall the visible part of the boy would be about 46.7 inches (3 feet 10 inches) to 50.4 inches (4 feet 2.4) inches tall. Adding at least 4 inches for the boy's hidden footwear, he would be at least 50.7 inches (4 feet 2.7 inches) to 54.4 inches (4 feet 5 & 1/3 inches) tall.
And if the soles of the boy's shoes go as far down as the soles of the sergeant's shoes, the boy will be about 190 mm tall, or about 0.79 as tall as the sergeant, and thus be about 52.24 inches (4 feet 4.24 inches) to 56.88 inches (4 feet 8.88 inches) tall. Since the sergeant is at least as tall bare headed as the helmeted soldiers beside him, he was probably close to 6 feet tall and the boy was probably about 4 feet 9 inches or semething in the painting.
In 1994, in the USA, there was a boy working at a diner who appeared to be about 5 feet tall and was really cute and childlike, looking sort of like actor Chad Allen (b. June 5, 1974) at the age of 12. One day my boss took me to dinner in a restaurant in that village; the boy from the diner was in the wait staff there also, and said hello. One of our companions asked if he was old enough to work there and he said yes, he was 16. My companion quite understandably said "I don't believe you. You're so cute. You look like like you're twelve. You're so cute.'
But the boy would have had to have been 16 to legally workin a restaurant that served alcohol.
So with that 20th century American example, and considering that the boy soldiers in the 19th century British army were recruited from boys who were small for their ages, I find it easy enough to believe there could have been 16-year-old boys at Isandhlwana who were as small as the boy in Fripp's painting, and possibly there were one or more boys younger than 16 there.
I note that the film Zulu Dawn (1979) was filmed from 29 May to August, 1978.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080180/locations?ref_=ttrel_sa_4
A fictional character, Boy Pullen (who has the same surname as a real battalion quartermaster), was portrayed by Phil Daniels, who is listed as being born October 25, 1859,and thus was 19 when filming the role.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0200057/?ref_=tt_cl_t_12
No one can complain that Daniels was too young to portray a boy soldier, though I don't remember how old he looked in the movie.
Another boy soldier in the movie looked quite young and was sarcastically called "Sunshine" by an older soldier. The IMDB hasn't found out yet who portrayed him.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080180/fullcredits?ref_=ttloc_sa_1
And I remember glimpsing other other boy soldiers in the movie, whose actors are also not listed.
Answered By - M. A. Golding
