John Condon

John Condon died at fourteen during the Second Battle of the Ypres in 1915, making him the youngest recorded soldier to perish in World War I. He claimed an older age to join the Royal Irish Regiment’s 3rd Battalion from Waterford, then waited through reserve training and minor punishment until active duty called him to France. When chlorine gas rolled across the front on May 24, 1915, he was among nearly four hundred men killed in hours. His grave in Poelcapelle Cemetery still draws crowds, not for glory but for the shock of a child buried under a soldier’s name.