DRIVER WILFRED THOMAS WELLING
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
12TH JULY 1916 AGE 16
BURIED: LONGUENESSE (ST OMER) SOUVENIR CEMETERY, FRANCE
The point of this inscription, composed by Wilfred Welling's parents, was that Welling was only 16 when he died, far too young to have even joined up let alone to have been serving oversea. You were meant to be 18 before you could enlist and 19 before you could go abroad - unless you had your parents' signed permission. But you can see what his parents said, "He would insist on serving his country".
How could this be allowed? Richard Emden's Boy Soldiers of the Great War shows that there are no simple answers. If you were big enough and strong enough to look 18 the Army took your word for it. That is until the National Registration Act was passed in July 1915. This made it compulsary for all men between the ages of 15 and 65 to complete a form on National Registration Day, 15 August 1915, giving their name, age, nationality, marital status and employment details. After this date you had to produce your registration card when you went to enlist making it more difficult - but not impossible - for under-age boys to get through. For all the disgust we might feel today at the army accepting under-age boys, for all the stories of recruiting sergeants encouraging boys to lie about their age, it was the case that some boys really wanted to be part of the action and their parents couldn't or wouldn't stop them.
Wilfred Wellings served with the 40th Division Ammunition Column Royal Field Artillery. According to the information given by his parents to the War Graves Commission, he died of concussion. He was buried in one of the cemeteries in St Omer, a large hospital centre behind the lines.