Weekly Dispatch, London, 5 August 1917

Bad Boys Birched.

Two Lads Scared by Result of Their Misdoings.

Charged with stealing a lady's handbag containing 45s. and securities worth £37.10s., at Cleethorpes, two lads, aged 13, explained at Grimsby yesterday that the theft arose out of a boyish prank.

The owner of the bag was lodging with the mother of one of the lads, and as he wanted to go to the country he took the bag to put some clothes in. When they found the money the boys were so frightened they decided to go to Woolwich to get work at munitions. On their way one of them got frightened again in the train and pulled the communication cord, causing a lot of trouble.

They found work in Woolwich and were arrested there. As one of the boys had been convicted of theft before he was ordered to receive six strokes of the birch-rod, while his companion was to get three.