Two dollars in my pocket

First World War Audio Archive

Two dollars in my pocket

Transcript

At 14 years of age, I stood with the men, the hired men,

Photograph of soldier standing "at ease."

and pitched hay to the thatching machine and done a man’s work. At 14 years of age and I worked hard. At 16 years of age, the war broke out on August 4th, 1914 and my boy friends on the other farms around had gone to war and enlisted so I decided I was going to go too. So I run away from home to Corbin, Ontario 12 miles away and got on the 11:22 midnight train and went to Kingston, Ontario, with two dollars in my pocket. That’s all I had, two dollars in my pocket. The next morning, a recruiting

Soldier sitting with hat and stick in each hand.

sergeant at a recruiting office took me down to be sworn in. The recruiting officer looked at me, “That boy’s not 18 years of age, you can’t give me that nonsense. He’s still got his bloomer pants on.” Which I did. I had my best suit on which I wore on Sundays. They wouldn’t take me. So the recruiting sergeant took me out to his home and had his wife cut his trousers to fit me. I put on these extra trousers and an overcoat and he took me to another recruiting station and he got a dollar for every recruit, you know, in those days they got a dollar. So I’m sworn in, and I’m in the 21st Overseas Canadian Battalion, Infantry Battalion, and I’m with the friends who had enlisted

Picture of five friends who enlisted in the forces together.

all around my town and my district - about 35, 40 miles around.

Description

Mr. Hatch describes enlisting despite being under-aged, with the help of a creative recruiter’s wardrobe.

George Frederick Hatch

George Frederick Hatch was born in Manchester, England, on May 15, 1898. He moved to Colborne, Ontario, with his parents in 1904. After his father was killed in the Boer War, Mr. Hatch worked on the family farm. He ran away to enlist at the age of sixteen, and, with the help of a creative recruiter, was accepted into the 20th Canadian Overseas Infantry Battalion, going overseas in May 1915. He spent Christmas at Ypres, and then saw serious action at the Somme, where he was wounded. Mr. Hatch then joined the Royal Flying Corps, firstly as a “volunteer” machine gunner and then as a fully qualified pilot. He was shot down and, although partially blinded by his own blood, was able to land safely behind his own lines. After the war, Mr. Hatch emigrated to the United States, living in Virginia, then Montana. He and his wife were killed in a car accident on November 26, 1986.

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