Young remember the boys who fell
When Hughie O'Donnell left the Goldfields town of Kanowna and signed up for World War I, he gave his age as 19.
Because he was enlisting under the age of 21, his father John signed a form giving permission.
Hughie gave his occupation as miner and war records show he was 5ft 11in tall (1.8m) in November 1914 when he went to the Blackboy Hill training camp at Greenmount.
He sailed from Fremantle on Itonus on February 22, 1915, and reached Gallipoli as a reinforcement for the 11th Battalion on May 7, just 12 days after the Anzacs had first landed.
Just five days after reaching the peninsula, he was killed in action.
The truth about Hughie's age then emerged.
The official roll of honour at the Australian War Memorial records that he was actually only 16.
Tragically, many others who went to their death were also little more than boys.
Tomorrow, their service and sacrifice will be remembered at a special service at St George's Cathedral, starting at 5pm, which will be conducted entirely by young people under 18.
Handing over the service to children near the feast of St Nicholas, the patron saint of children, is a medieval tradition recently revived by the cathedral.
Precentor of St George's Cathedral, the Rev. Graeme Napier, has identified six teenage WA soldiers, including Hughie O'Donnell, who were killed in the conflict.
Handmade poppies will be strewn around the cathedral and wreaths will be laid at the historic Villers-Bretonneux cross.
The battle of Villers-Bretonneux, on April 24 and 25, 1918, in France, claimed the lives of 365 Australians.
The cross was pieced together from battlefield debris and placed in the cathedral in 1956.
The service will include children sounding the Last Post and Reveille and playing a lament on the bagpipes.
Amelia Beck, 12, a Year 6 student at St Hilda's, will deliver the sermon.
In doing so it is believed she will become the youngest guest preacher in the cathedral's history.
Amelia said she was excited to be given the opportunity and would speak about the young WA soldiers who did not come home.
"I think they wanted to be brave," she said.
"But as soon as they got into the war, they changed their minds. It's very sad."
