When the First World War started, soldiers were meant to be 19 years or over in order to serve overseas (e.g. France, Belgium etc.) Many weren't.
When did this age limit get lowered?
I have a photo of a band of one of the Yorkshire Regiment's Battalions, taken at the outbreak of War, which clearly shows two boys in uniform who cannot have been more than about 12 years of age.
At what age could boys join and serve in a regiment on home duties?
If this topic has been covered before, - I'm sure that it has, I would be glad of pointers.

If you would like to see the photo I mention, please look at
http://www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/html-file...oups.htm#11band

Wrong assumption.

'Boys' [ie under 18] could go on active service as:

drummer
bugler
trumpeter
piper


and did.

your photo is not earlier than autumn 1916, by the way.

Many thanks Grumpy.
But I am now curious as to your statement that "your photo is not earlier than autumn 1916...".
The person who sent me the photo, with little additional information, said that his g-grandfather had been invalided out of the regiment after the Battle of the Somme.
If you have information which helps date the photo, I would be very interested in it.

Several drummers [I should say bandsmen with drums ... there is a difference] have the vertical bar badge on their left lower sleeve 'for wounds'. This was first issued July 1916, give or take a month or two.

That is a really useful bit of information, Grumpy. Having this information the photo can now be attributed to the 10th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment. The soldier whose g-grandson sent me the photo was originally in the 11th Battalion but then transferred to the 10th. He was wounded in July 1916 (serving with the 10th). The family story is that he also fought at Passchendaele, but there are no records (yet) to confirm this or that he was subsequently wounded.
Many thanks for your help.

I am now curious as to whether the two exceptionally young members of the band in the photo were under-age soldiers, or boy soldiers attached to the band.