After seeing their relatives, friends and neighbours join up to serve for their country during the Great War, some young men too young to enlist lied about their age so they could also take part. Leslie Leonard Heckford from Bournemouth was one such young man.

“My father lied about his age when he enlisted as a driver for the gun carriages with the Royal Horse Artillery in February 1915. He was only 16, spending his 17th birthday in France”, said his daughter Mrs Joan Williams of Parkstone.

Bournemouth born Leslie was an apprentice at Morton’s shoe shop in Commercial Road and lived with his family in Cambridge Road.

The Royal Horse Artillery was responsible for light, mobile guns, providing firepower in support of cavalry. Leslie was attached to the 51st Highland Division and the infamous Black Watch.

“I still have his soldier’s pay book showing the amount he was paid when he was ‘in the field’, and lists dates of battles from Mons in August 1914 until Cambrai in October 1918. It also has the date when his brother Fabian was killed in action at Mesopotamia in 1916”, said Joan who is in her 90s.

It is uncertain how many of these battles the Highland Division took part in, but what is certain is Leslie was not involved in the earlier battles as he didn’t join until 1915.

Leslie had several mentions of good conduct in his pay book. He was discharged from the Royal Horse Artillery in 1919 and went on to work for British Gas in Yarmouth Road for 45 years.

“He would have joined up in the Second World War and served in some capacity if the war had continued much longer. He was then in his 40s”, said a very proud Joan.