Children at war

In the dimmed light of the Imperial War Museum, the faces change. A smiling teenage boy, a girl with a rose in her hair, a young man in a tie, slowly blur into the lines of age, creases appearing around the eyes. Behind them flash images of the second world war; huddled faces, men and stretchers, St Paul's through smoke.

Standing watching this display, part of the Children's War exhibition that opens on Friday at the museum in London, is John Hipkin, now 78, who was Britain's youngest prisoner of war.

Mr Hipkin, a cabin boy in the merchant navy, had only been at sea for 21 days when he was captured by German forces and taken to a prisoner of war camp. He was 14. "I spent more time on German ships than I did on British ones," he quips. . .

When he finished school at 14, in 1941, he faced a choice of going to sea or working in the [coal] pits . . . .

From the Guardian. As is typical of Imperial War Museum exhibitions, this will be up for a good long time: three years. The exhibition website is here.

Posted by David on March 17, 2005 9:23 AM