Youngest World War II Service Casualty Identified

February 15th BBC.

Reginald Earnshaw was 14 years and 152 days old when he died under enemy fire on the SS North Devon July 6, 1941. He was a merchant marine cabin boy who had lied and said he was 15 to enter the service.

For years, his body had been buried in an unmarked grave until a former shipmate went looking for his final resting place. His sister, Pauline Harvey, 77, laid flowers on his grave at Comely Bank Cemetery in Edinburgh.

The North Devon had been on its way to Tyneside when it was attacked by German bombers.

The previous youngest was thought to be Raymond Steed, also in the merchant marine, who was 14 years and 207 days old when he met his death.

The SS North Devon weighed 3,658 tons and was built in 1928, a year after Reginald was born on February 5, 1927. A poem was written about him at Poet Bay.com by Ken D. Williams. It evidently was not sunk in the attack.

Sad to See a Life So Young Come to an End. --Cooter