Born on Valentine’s Day 14th February, Valentine, usually known by his middle name, Joe, was the second of six surviving children of Jesse Strudwick, a gardener, and his second wife Louisa (nee Fuller), a laundress. Jesse's first wife, Ellen, had died leaving him with two small daughters, step-sisters to Joe. When Joe was born the family lived in Falkland Road, moving later to Orchard Road. At the age of three Joe started at the Falkland Road Infants' School, the infants' school that had merged with St Paul's School in 1896, and he transferred to St Paul's School at the age of eight where he would most likely have stayed until the age of 13. After leaving school, Joe is thought to have worked for his uncle, a local coal merchant. He may also have been a farm hand at a smallholding behind St Paul's School near the Glory Wood. Like many others, however, Joe must have been struck by the persuasive recruitment campaigns run by the British Government from 1914 onwards - poster campaigns designed to encourage men to join up and serve their country. Hundreds of thousands answered the Government's call, including many young men who thought that army life would provide opportunities for travel and work that were not available at home. At the age of 14 years and 11 months he ran away in January 1915, joining the 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, (The Prince Consort's Own) part of the 14th (Light) Division - the battalion for volunteer soldiers. His mother was very anxious and would have preferred him not to have gone and she was never to see him again. Because he was tall and strong he managed to conceal his true age from the recruitment office at Lambeth. The presence of boy soldiers at the Front was to become a major embarrassment to the military authorities during the First World War. Officially, the minimum age for army recruits was 19, but boys as young as 13 are known to have joined up, lying about their age in order to fight. After 6 weeks of training, probably at Winchester, he joined his regiment on the Western Front, and immediately found himself in the thick of it. Shortly after his arrival two of his pals nearby were instantly killed. Joe, who was badly shocked and suffering from gas poisoning, was sent home to hospital at Sheerness to recover. After 3 months he returned to his regiment in France. This was an anxious time for his mother because she had another son in the Royal Field Artillery but it is not known if this was Charles or Jack, or if this other son survived the war.

A week after his return to the front, his mother received a letter dated 15th January from Joe's commanding officer, informing her that her son had been killed during fierce fighting on the banks of the Yser Canal near Boezinge.

"I am very sorry indeed to have to inform you that your son was killed by a shell on Jan. 14th. His death was quite instantaneous and painless and his body was carried by his comrades to a little cemetery behind the lines, where it was reverently buried this morning. A cross is being made and will shortly be erected on his grave. Rifleman Strudwick had earned the goodwill and respect of his comrades and of his officers, and we are very sorry indeed to lose so good a soldier. On their behalf as well as my own I offer you our sincere sympathy."

Joe's family never saw him in uniform and no known photographs survive of him.

His death was reported in the Dorking Advertiser - 22 January 1916

He is honoured on the Rolls of Honour in both St Paul's and St Martin's churches, and on the War Memorial in South Street, Dorking.

Burial:

Essex Farm Cemetery 

Ypres (Ieper)

West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen), Belgium

Plot: Grave Reference:I. U. 8.

“Very little is known of Valentine Joe Strudwick, other than the fact he was just 15 years old when he was killed in fierce fighting on the banks of the Yser Canal near Boezinge. In reality there is little more that needs to be known or that can be meaningfully said.”

At the age of 15, Rifleman VJ Strudwick was one of the youngest battle casualties of the conflict and for this reason his grave is one of the most visited in any of the First World War cemeteries. Essex Farm Cemetery in the Ypres Salient was named after a small cottage that stood beside the Boesinge road at the entrance to the canal access track.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B18vAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0dsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6584%2C6191338