Darren Timms

The youngest British soldier of WW1 was just 12 years old. His name was Sidney Lewis, a boy from London who ran away from home in August 1915 without telling his parents. His parents had absolutely no idea where their young son had disappeared to, until a soldier back from the front lines on leave mentioned seeing him in France. Sidney easily tricked army recruiters who were more than happy to turn a blind eye to underage boys eager to fight. By the time he was 13, he was operating heavy machine guns in the 106th Machine Gun Company right in the thick of the Battle of the Somme. He survived six weeks of hell in the Battle of Delville Wood, enduring some of the most horrific casualties of the entire war. Desperate to save her child, his mother tracked down his military unit and sent a frantic letter to the War Office demanding his release, attaching his birth certificate as absolute proof. The army had no choice but to discharge him and send him home to his family. It wasn't until 2013 that historians and the Imperial War Museum officially authenticated his record, confirming that a 12 year-old boy truly braved the worst of the Great War. Lest we forget.