THE First World War was the destroyer of youth - and some of those caught in its claws were very young indeed.

Countless underage boys served in the trenches. Some were officers, some won medals, including VCs, and many were wounded or killed.

Author Richard van Emden tracked down several survivors to give their own account of what happened - such as Albert Harvey, pictured at 97 holding a photograph of himself at 15 years old in the East Yorkshire Regiment during 1915.

He joined up after a zeppelin attack killed 24 people in his home city of Hull, but was "claimed" by his family and discharged in 1916.

The author points out that younger males can make effective soldiers, because they are more impressionable. But the British state did not compel them to go to the front - at least, not at first.

Ironically, the fact that the British stuck to voluntary recruitment for so long (unlike conscription systems in Germany and France, which called men up in age groups), provided the scope for boys to lie about their age - with recruiters turning an often outrageously blind eye.

The state did decide to send 18-year-olds to the front in 1918, as an emergency measure to repel the last great German attack.

By the end of the year the war was won - partly thanks to the boy soldiers.

Updated: 11:35 Saturday, June 18, 2005