MARRIED AT SEVENTEEN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3347, 27 November 1919, Page 6

MARRIED AT SEVENTEEN.

AFTER FOUR YEARS IN ARMY._ . BRIDE TWO YEARS YOUNGER. FALSE DECLARATION ADMITTED. ' The 1-einarkable “life” story of a boy ‘of 17, who, having enlisted as a. bugler in the Australian Army in 1914, when only 13 years of age, saw four years’ campaigning in Gallipoli and France, -and then returned to New Zealand and married an Auckland girl 15 years of age, just a month ago,‘ was told in the Police Court Auckland, an Monday. ' The central: figure in the tale was Edgar George Brown, an orderly at, the Auckland Military Hospital, who} was charged before Mr F. K. Hunt,‘ S.M., with having made a false (Te-I claration. for the purpose of procuring a ma:-ri.ag:e Icertificate, Iby declaring that the girl in question was 21, ihat I her name was. other than it Wis, and’? that he himself was 25 years of age. The accused, neatly uniformed, had! the manner and cal'l4ia.ge of :1 nl-In of maturer years. I

The incidents prior to the arrest of the set out in a st'atelnellt he made to Detective-Sergeant Issell, when intervieweid at the Military Hospital. He said he was the son of a__‘nlini.'.lg engineer, and was born at Lewisham, New South Wales, in Jlanuary, 1902, and that his parents reaidcd in Sydney. ‘ ' “I enlisted as a. bugler with the first battalion of the Australian Expeditionary Force in 1914.” he continued, “and gave my age then as 22. I sailed with them to Egypt and Gallipoli, whence I was invalided to Alexandnia. Later I sailed with my batfalion to England, uthenee To "France. I ‘was wounded at the Somme, returned to Sydney, and discharged in May, 1918.” '

The youth, _Japparent.l.y dissatisfied at ‘being unable to re-enlivst in his native "country, sailed for New Zealand, and just a. month after his discharge in Australia, re—enlisted at VVell‘-ington with the forty-third ‘reinforcements. On" atrrivlal pat Sling, however, he was classed C2, and returned to VVellington, where he arrived seven months ago. Since his return he has been almost continually in the service of the Defence Department a’t7 Trentham and A'uckla.nd. “I met the girl in Auklland last August,” he continued, “antd without her parents’ consent. I married her at the I‘cgistrar’s oifiee on October 24, and entered her name wrongly. I knew her age was then 15, and I admit the particulars I set down in the register were false.” . The registr'ar of marriages at Auckland and the vgirl’s father gave evidance in support of the ch»a.rge. The youth then pleaded guilty, and he had nnothing to say, angd was committed to ‘the Supreme Court for sentenee.