Inflating age when eligible?

[Timbottawa]

Ancestry's new WW1 Pension records have a Clifford Boyle, who gave his age at enlistment (1914) as 35.

FreeBMD shows only one Clifford Boyle being born between 1860 and 1900, my relative, who was born in 1894 (I've also checked on Ancestry for 3Q 1881, the only quarter still not fully or almost fully recorded in FreeBMD).

So my Clifford would have been 20 if he enlisted in late 1914.  There would be no need to lie about his age, and why would he grossly inflate his age (by 15 years) anyway?

There are other possibilities, of course ... a real 35-yr-old Clifford could have been born overseas, or could have given a false Christian name, etc.  But the location of Clifford's residence and enlistment (W. Yorks) is entirely consistent with my Clifford.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to whether this is likely to be my Clifford, lying excessively about his age, or another person?

Thanks
Tim

[manmack]

tim,there were 2 clifford boyles,your rellie was probably this lad.
lance corporal, 80,clifford boyle
16th battalion,west yorks regt[bradford pals]
prince of wales own
age 20
born leeds
lived,bradford.
he enlisted at the mechanics institute,bradford in sept 1914.

the other one was
private 307369 clifford boyle
west yorks regt
then transferred to the labour corps as private 374050
he was 35 when the war started
parents were thomas and georgina,24 wheat st,leeds
its possible that this lad was away fighting in the boer war in 1901,so he wouldnt show up on the census.
he was in the territorial army
mack

[Timbottawa]

Thanks Mack,

Silly of me not to try the censii first, although the older Clifford was difficult to find.  But with your information on his parents' names, I found him as a 3-year-old in 1881, showing him being born in Leeds, Yorks.  A search for all Boyle births during 1877-79 in Leeds showed a George Clifford Boyle, born 1877.

Thanks for resolving this mystery.

Cheers
Tim