Although many young men were deluded enough to lie about their ages to get into the Army it is very unlikely that any recruiting centre would be taken in by 14 or 15 year old boys although, of course, many who were that age in 1914 were called up before the War ended.
After war broke out in August 1914, the government unanimously dismissed a proposal for compulsory military service. Over 3,000,000 men volunteered to serve in the British Armed Forces during the first two years of the war. In 1915 a national register for service, the 'Derby Scheme' (after Lord Derby the Director-General of Recruiting) was adopted. Men between the ages of 18 and 41 could enlist as volunteers or could attest; in effect be under obligation to join the forces if and when they were called to do so. However, the high casualty rates on the Western Front and the falling number of voluntary recruits led to two Military Service Acts in January and May 1916, ensuring that all those eligible to serve 'king and country' were now forced to report for duty. King George V issued a statement on 25th May 1916:
'To enable our country to organise more effectively its military resources in the present great struggle for the cause of civilisation, I have, acting on the advice of my Ministers, deemed it necessary to enrol every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-one'.
The January Act conscripted only single men and widowers aged 18 to 41 and without dependants, but the May Act extended the call up to married men and at the end of the war married men of fifty were being conscripted into the army. Local Tribunals were set up throughout England to hear pleas for exemption from military service. Grounds for exemption included poor health, essential work, family circumstances or conscientious objection. It was left to local councils to choose the people who actually sat on the tribunal. Each tribunal panel contained one army-selected member who attended every hearing and had the right to cross-examine each applicant. Conscription caused real hardships particularly for small farms worked by family members. The tribunals were reported in the local paper and the following cases concern the parish of Northbourne. Although the reports are brief they provide useful information about ages, occupations, size of farms and family situations during the second half of the Great War.
