The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys is a collection of forty untold stories of under-age soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who fought in the First World War. The youngest boy was just thirteen years while the others were mid teens. In 1914 the legal age for enlistment was nineteen.

In 2017 Paul Byrnes discovered a list of 170 under-age soldiers recorded on the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour. To be included on this list the soldiers had died. It was probable that some under-age soldiers had survived the perils of war so the author began an investigation into the lives of these young men and his research resulted in this selection of the stories collected. Why did they want to go? How did they slip through the system?

Many under-age applicants were sent home before troops left Australia or New Zealand but some stilll went to war. As authorities realised that incorrect information had been provided on some of the application papers attempts were made to keep under-age soldiers away from the fighting but this was not always possible.

These stories usually have photos of the young men and attempt to provide background information of their life before they enlisted as well as information about their military experiences. The book is an important contribution for attempting to understand the impact of war on families and generally the home front.