Thomas Bickerton saw the outbreak of the First World War as an opportunity for adventure. At just 16 he was too young to join the British Army and fight overseas. But like thousands of other boys this did not stop him from trying and, eventually, succeeding.
At the outbreak of the First World War Thomas was an apprentice carpenter, growing up in St Albans. He was impressed by the soldiers he saw in town and, like many other boys, thought the war would be an adventure. He was only 16 when he and his friends tried to join up. The Recruiting Officer was not taken in by their enthusiasm and told them all to ‘go home and get some of mother’s puddings into you’ and come back when they were old enough.
‘… it would be a good thing if all young people could visit this area – they would then perhaps realise the sacrifices of my generation.’
A few months later and now 17 but still underage, Thomas tried again. The Recruiting Officer ‘enquired my age, and I said “17, but I can be 19”, so he replied, “Well now … what year were you born in?” “Ah!” I said, “Well, 1896.” “That’s the right answer he said”.’ Thomas was finally in the Army.
He passed his training, made friends, learned to smoke and enjoyed the soldier’s life. ‘I soon made friends … and in the evening we paraded through the High Street, Hertford, feeling [like] quite big men.’
He volunteered to go to France in 1916 and fought in the Battle of the Somme. But his Sergeant could see that Thomas was finding it hard to cope with the physical hardships of being at the front. He suspected that Tom was underage and said; ‘if you don’t send to your father for your birth certificate, I will!’ So Thomas was sent home.
But after his 19th birthday he returned to Flanders, fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres. He was captured by German forces near Arras in March 1918, and held prisoner until the end of the war.
Nearly 50 years later he returned to France with his son. ‘I was very much impressed by the war graves in the cemeteries so carefully tended. ... I cannot help feeling that it would be a good thing if all young people could visit this area – they would perhaps realise the sacrifices of my generation.’
Tom was just one of several thousand underage boys who came of age fighting in the British Army during First World War. But the war was not the adventure he had imagined as a boy; ‘For many years I would not discuss the war; I did not wish to be reminded of it in any way; it held very bitter memories for me.’
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