This is a piece by the Museum of Richmond - thank you very much.

George Vale was born and lived his short life in Richmond.

As the census shows, in 1901 he was still nine months old, so by the time war broke out he was still a boy. He was probably around 15 or 16 by the time he enlisted and therefore would have had to lie about his age. He probably travelled to Kingston to do it as it would be less likely he'd be recognised.

George finished his training by the middle of 1916 and was sent to France. It is unknown if there were any efforts to find him and take him home to safety. On both sides, 250,000 underage boys defied the efforts to keep them safe and enlisted. There are records of young boys being found and returned home, but George's story was tragically all too common.

George Veale died on October 10 1916 as one of the thousands of victims of the Somme.

His name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial along with the 72,000 others with no known grave who were killed during this deadly battle.

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Sir Horace Hood

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