There was something on the news the other day about a WWII Normandy veteran who had just died, which got me to wondering how many British soldiers fought in both WWI and WWII.
I'm not sure why, but plenty of people of my generation believe that a lot of the WWI veterans also fought in WWII, but that could not have been the case.
Anyone who was 18, and had signed up in the last year of WWI would have been 39 at the outbreak of WWII, but there was an upper age limit of 41 for those conscripted into the services in 1939. So, unless people had falsified their ages, very few would have fought in both World Wars.
I dare say that many of those who had remained in the Services at the end of WWI, and had progressed to senor ranks, such as Monty, would indeed have fought in both wars, but they also would have been relatively few, given the numbers thin out at the higher ranks of the command pyramid.
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