French bayonet belonging to Alfred Reginald Price

Description

French bayonet - Sarah Crosbie recalls: “They partnered quite a lot with French battalions. We think that they swapped weapons at the end. The inscription says ‘made in St Etienne’.”

Alfred Reginald Price, known as Reginald, was 17 when he enlisted on 13 October 1914 at the 5th Reserve Glosters Regiment.

The minimum age for signing up was 18. However, many young men enlisted when they were under age. Reginald had just left school and did not yet have a proper role in his father’s grocery store where his two sisters worked, so he enlisted into the Army.

Sarah Crosbie tells the story of her great grandfather’s enlistment:
“He signed up age 17 and ten months. He told them he was 18 and ten months and he stuck to it throughout the war. He talks in his diary of celebrating his ‘army birthday’.” Reginald trained as a sniper in the UK before leaving for France on 24 May 1916. He was injured twice and was awarded the medal of bravery for retrieving a gun from a battlefield.

Reginald was discharged in February 1919.

• http://www.walesremembers.org/ (link opens in new window)