Hi folks, I read a posting in the past couple of weeks or so about a boy soldier who was sponsored by his father, a serving officer. I would like to know if there is a listing of under-age soldiers who served in the British Army in India, Aden or elsewhere in the region between the period 1892 and 1899? I'm looking for the name James Jesse Stroud - as the boy soldier. I found he left school in a small town near Invercargill in New Zealand and travelled to Dunedin - I cannot find any evidence that he continued his musical studies in Dunedin NZ (at that time the main centre for Musical studies with Trinity College sending out an examiner annually to test students from around Australia and New Zealand) but Dunedin also had a major port for overseas arrivals and departures at Port Chalmers -- so I'm trying to work out if JJ Stroud sailed from NZ to London and subsequently joined the British India Army after studying at Kneller Hall or did he go straight into the Army under the sponsorship of a family friend or relative in England? In a letter which JJ sent to my father in the late 1940s he mentions being in his 'teenage' and 'helping a laddie build a flattie and a whaler in Aden' which were launched 'with the whole battalion lined up to witness the event' - I do not have the name of his battalion. JJ married in Colabra, Bombay in 1906. He and his wife Sarah (nee Gatley) left India in 1907 to travel on to NZ. I suspect they went back to England first to see her family in Stockport, Cheshire before sailing off to NZ. Any help would be most appreciated as this is my major hurdle at present! Cheers Ainslie.