THIS year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. To mark the occasion, the Argus has teamed up with an initiative commemorating the contribution of people from Gwent in the Great War.

This column is written by organisers of the project called ‘Journey’s End’, and its title reflects how many people from the region died in service. It is hoped efforts to name them all will be completed in time for the anniversary on November 11.

"THE early months of 1918 witnessed growing concern over the behaviour of young people, particularly boys.

On April 20, 1918, the Argus reported that “hobbledehoys” with “big boots but small brains” had destroyed two benches near St Woolos Church often used by wounded soldiers.

A letter to the paper in March had complained of an “alarming growth in juvenile crime” and claimed that, even though some gangs had been broken up, there were still “scores of boy thieves” in Newport.

Another letter lamented the number of “funks” with “long hair in curls” hanging about street corners. In February, one boy had been sentenced to four strokes of the birch and three boys to three strokes for breaking into the cash box of a tram in Corporation Road.

Special Constable Holbrook told the court that this sort of offence “was continually happening”.

In March, two youths were fined and two given six strokes of the birch for stealing gold watches from the Commercial Hotel in Newport.

The “boy problem”, as the Argus called it, was not new in 1918. In 1916, Newport councillor Peter Wright complained that “our lads today did not study, and only knew music hall ditties, all the girls within a ten mile radius, and the name of every brand of cigarette.”

This was not confined to Newport. The local press complained of the vandalism in Abertillery, “disgusting behaviour” by children in Ebbw Vale and “street loungers” in Tredegar.

All this led one local newspaper to warn that “if the boyhood of this country is not soon taken seriously in hand we feel that some day, when that boyhood grows up and takes this country in hand, a pretty mess it will make of things.”

To some extent these concerns merely echoed complaints about youth made by every generation.

Nevertheless, it seems that the disruption and strains caused by the war had an impact on the behaviour of the young.

In 1916, the headmaster at St Woolos Boys School, in Stow Hill, had noted that, as the result of criminal activity, “three boys have been sent away from this school during the past twelve month – an experience quite exceptional for this school”."