Old Enough to Fight Gallery

Between 15,000 and 20,000 underage youths, some as young as ten, signed up to fight in Canada’s armed forces in the First World War. They served in the trenches alongside their elders, and fought in all the major battles: Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele. Many were injured or suffered psychological wounds. Many died.

The book Old Enough to Fight: Canada’s Boy Soldiers in the First World War, published in hardcover by James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers in 2013 and again in 2015 as a softcover second edition tells their stories, and the small gallery below shows some of their faces. The book can be ordered from the publisher, purchased or ordered at bookstores, or online.

Private Willie Dailey was fourteen when he joined the army in August 1915. He died on the Somme in 1916. Photo courtesy Ted Dailey
A clerk from Toronto, David Waldron enrolled at age sixteen. Courtesy Ian Waldron
Private Percy McClare enrolled six weeks after his seventeenth birthday, but only after begging his mother to sign the consent form. Courtesy Dale McClare
A letter written by Private Willie Dailey to his mother in Gananoque, Ontario. Courtesy Geraldine Chase

The telegram every family dreaded. Five weeks after he survived the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Private Percy “Winnie” McClare was reported killed in action. Courtesy Dale McClare