AS PART of our World War One coverage, YT has been follows life at home.Our reporter went to the crime pages of the Grays and Tilbury Gazette and discovered that a number of juveniles had hit the headlines.Whilst some Thurrock teenagers were fighting in the trenches of WW1, other Thurrock youths were engaged in less honourable activities at home.STORY OF A PAIR OF PANTS Robert Fenwick, aged 10, of 14 Maidstone Place, and Philip Bayford, aged 10, of 22 Maidstone Place, were summoned for stealing a woollen vest and a pair of pants, value 5s, the property of Mr. G. Lyndon Rhodes, on October 14th (1916). P.s. Griggs said about 8.45 p.m., on Saturday, he received information that these pants had been taken from a showcase outside Mr. Rhodes’ shop.He went to Maidstone Place, where he saw the defendants. Fenwick ran away, but he caught Bayford, who admitted taking the things. Special Constable W.T. Liasman, who is also an assistant at Mr. Rhodes’ shop, put the value of the articles at 5s (shillings).M. Membery, Probation Officer, said that Bayford was continually playing truant. The Bench ordered each boy to receive three strokes with the birch, and to pay the costs, 7s 6d each.ALLEGED THEFT OF MONEY Frank Frederick Ferdinand, aged 13, of 42 Quebec Road, George Mustoe, aged 13, of Quebec Road, and William John Stone, aged 7, of 74 Montreal Road, Tilbury, were summoned for stealing £1 10s, the property of James Waterman, of 69 Sydney Road, Tilbury, a dealer, on October 14th .Mrs Waterman deposed that on Saturday, she heard the doorbell ring and went downstairs. As she was going down she fancied she heard a scuffle. She found Stone in the shop. He seemed excited and asked for some twopenny balls. She said she had sold out and Stone left.Later she missed the money, amounting to about £1 10s. P.c. Branwhite spoke to seeing the boys at school on Monday morning, when they admitted taking the money from the shop and sharing it out. Ferdinand and Mustoe said they went to Southend by train, and after buying sweets and biscuits they went to the pictures, slept under a boat all night and came home the next evening. Dectective-Sergt Cant said Stone told him they spent all their money at the fair and then went to the shop to get some more.There was a previous offence against Ferdinand, who was sent to a reformatory until he was 19. Mustoe was placed on probation for twelve months and ordered to pay the costs 5s. while Stone was sent to an industrial school until he is 15 years of age.FROM A LOCK-UP SHOP Frederick Ferdinand (13) of 42 Quebec Road, Tilbury and James Hill (13) of 73 Quebec Road Tilbury, were summoned for stealing two tins of salmon, value 1s 3d., the property of E.W. Bland, from a lock-up shop in Sidney Road Tilbury, on Oct 8th.The tins were stolen from the broken window of a lock-up shop and the boys had been remanded for enquiries. Ferdinand having been dealt with in the previous case, Hill was placed on probation for twelve months.
