NORMAN Adams was one of the brave Keighley teenagers who joined the army despite being too young to fight.

Norman was 17 years and 190 days old when he attested for the army in May 1915, but he pretended to be 19 years and six months.

The subterfuge got the Keighley labourer into the 2nd Bradford Pals, part of the West Yorkshire Regiment, and a posting to Egypt that December.

By March the following year he was in France, fighting in the Battle of the Somme where he received a shell wound to his legs.

He was transferred from field hospital to casualty clearing station, to general hospital and then to England.

By that December Private Adams was back in France, and despite receiving seven days’ field punishment for misconduct the following March, within another three months he was appointed acting lance corporal.

Norman’s army served career was uneventful until 1918 when he was gassed, received another shell wound and was promoted to corporal.

Norman joined the Army Reserve in 1919, and served for another year. Men of Worth Project research suggests he lived until at least 1962, living first in Keighley, then Shipley, then Skipton.