Thanks to Google, I was reminded of the Victorian Wars Forum http://www.victorianwars.com/index.php so posed this question on there. The consensus appeared to be that there is no obvious reason of - age (their stated age of 18 is just as adult as their real ages), - height (the elder, at least, was well over the required height for an adult soldier) - or bounty (we don't think the amount would be different for an 18y old) why these two brothers would understate their ages on joining the Army in the late 1820s, and that therefore the most likely explanation is indeed an "honest" error. Possibly if the elder brother thought he was 2y younger than he was, then everyone else had to shuffle down to match, so that's why the younger brother understated his age as well. Adrian B
I can't help wondering whether it might be a bit like 'of full age' for marriage ... Recruiter asks "Are you 18?" (implying but not saying '18 or over'). Recruit says 'Yes, I'm 18." (again implying 'over'). So '18' goes onto the record. 2p, Malcolm. On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 23:05:03 +0100, Adrian Bruce <abruce@madasafish.com> wrote: > Thanks to Google, I was reminded of the Victorian Wars Forum > http://www.victorianwars.com/index.php so posed this question on there. > > The consensus appeared to be that there is no obvious reason of > - age (their stated age of 18 is just as adult as their real ages), > - height (the elder, at least, was well over the required height for an > adult soldier) > - or bounty (we don't think the amount would be different for an 18y > old) > why these two brothers would understate their ages on joining the Army in > the late 1820s, and that therefore the most likely explanation is indeed > an > "honest" error. Possibly if the elder brother thought he was 2y younger > than > he was, then everyone else had to shuffle down to match, so that's why > the > younger brother understated his age as well. > > Adrian B > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOG-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/