Nigel Farage, in a new documentary on the World War I, has highlighted the youngest Britons who laid down their life.
At one of the most visited graves on the whole of the Western Front, the Reform UK leader told the story of VJ Strudwick, who is buried at Essex Farm Cemetery.
The 15-year-old Rifleman died on 14 January 1916, just one month before his 16th birthday.
Mr Farage said: “We are absolutely certain that that is correct and that Strudwick was 15, hence how heavily visited it is.”
He also noted that Briton John Condon, who was believed to be aged 14, may have been the youngest soldier to die in the First World War, and that a South African soldier was killed “just before his 14th birthday”.
The youngest Briton to serve in any capacity in the war was a boy named Sid Lewis.
Mr Farage said: “Sid Lewis from Surrey. He was about five-foot-nine, five-foot-ten, at the age of 12.
“So he joins at 12 and he’s totally accepted. And during the Battle of the Somme, he works as part of a Vickers .303 machine gun team. He said he’s actually in action on the Somme at 13 and survives the war.”
The Reform UK leader also shone a light on some of the oldest veterans to have made the ultimate sacrifice, including Captain Henry Webber, a stockbroker who was killed on the Somme at the age of 68.
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