PRIVATES Mike Gould and Jack Dickson signed up 22 new recruits to fight in Flanders fields at Oxford Town Hall yesterday.

Many of the recruits who were visiting the Museum of Oxford yesterday, may have looked extremely young, but official documentation showed their age as 17.

Of course, this was only a re-enactment event, marking the centenary of the First World War, but it aimed to highlight one of the most shocking facts of the conflict: hundreds of soldiers between 1914 and 1918 were mere children who lied about their age to go and fight for King and country.

Mr Gould, from Abingdon, and Mr Dickson, from Burton on Trent, are members of the Birmingham Pals First World War re-enactment troupe who visited the museum yesterday for a First World War family day.

Mr Gould said: "We signed up about 20 children – but they were all 17 of course – and gave them the King's shilling.

"This really did happen: I believe the youngest fatal casualty in the First World War was 14."

Yesterday's one-off event ties in with the ongoing centenary exhibition at the museum – Oxford's Great War, which runs until October 8.