LegionLive

Reggie Earnshaw, at just 14 years and 152 days old, has been revealed as the youngest known service casualty of the Second World War.

Reggie was so desperate to join his friends in the Merchant Navy when they all went to war in 1941 that he lied about his age in order to sign up as a cabin boy on the SS North Devon. Reggie was tragically killed months later when the ship came under fire off the Norfolk coast as it made its way to Tyneside. He was buried in an unmarked grave, and until the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s recent discovery, was known only as a boy ‘aged about 15.’

If it wasn’t for Alf Tubb, a machine-gunner who served alongside Reggie, his identity might not ever have been known. Alf fought to rescue Reggie after he lay trapped and injured in the ship’s engine room after the disaster, but was beaten back by scalding steam.

Four years ago, Alf, aged 86, set about finding out where Reggie was buried. He eventually tracked him down in Edinburgh, but, with no sign of any of Reggie’s family, Alf launched a nationwide appeal for information last year. Reggie’s sister Pauline came forward, and yesterday she and her great niece marked Reggie’s birthday with the laying of  flowers in Comely Bank cemetery. Jenny will now choose an inscription for the headstone, and ensure that the name of Reginald Hamilton Earnshaw won’t ever be forgotton.