Keeping the children safe...

Liverpool Echo 21 August 1914

As long as William Howard didn't make another false claim of being old enough to join the army, he should have been safe from the war. Soldiers could enlist from the age of 17 but could only be sent overseas once they had reached the age of 19 years.

Of course, we know many under-age boys enlisted, some were sent overseas and some were killed. I like to think that this mother, in stopping her son's patriotic foolhardiness, saved his life.