Lives of the First World War

known April 1918

When Myles signed up in June 1917 he said he was 19 years old, and his parents acknowledged his assertion although no birth date was provided. The papers show him as 19 years and 4 months. Subsequently his mother had second thoughts and wrote in November 1917 that he had just passed his 18th birthday. It has to be assumed that she provided a birth certificate as subsequently it was decided that he was 18 and therefore too young for the firing line, 19 being the minimum age. Sadly the order for him to be withdrawn had not reached the front when he died of wounds in April 1918. His brother Carrington had already died on active service in 1916( he was 29) a double tragedy for the Killelea family.

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