On
this date, April 28, 1993, the youngest soldier of World War I, Momčilo Gavrić passed away at the age
of 86. I will post information about this child soldier from Wikipedia.
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Momčilo Gavrić on Korfu, 1916.
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Born
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1 May 1906
Trbušnica, near Loznica, Kingdom of Serbia |
Died
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28 April 1993 (aged 86)
Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia |
Allegiance
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Kingdom
of Serbia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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Rank
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Lance Sergeant
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Awards
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Albanian Medal
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Spouse(s)
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Kosara Gavrić
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Momčilo Gavrić
(Serbian Cyrillic: Момчило
Гаврић; 1 May 1906
– 28 April 1993) was the youngest soldier in the First World War.
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Momčilo Gavrić and another soldier reporting
to major Stevan Tucović, 1916.
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Biography
He
was born in Trbušnica, near Loznica, on the slopes of the mountain Gučevo, as
the eighth child of eleven, in the family of Alimpije and Jelena Gavrić.
World
War I
In
the beginning of August 1914, Austro-Hungarian soldiers killed his father,
mother, grandmother, his three sisters, and four of his brothers. His house was
also set on fire. Momčilo survived because he was not at home when it
happened—his father had sent him to his uncle earlier.
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Gavrić watches a captured Austro-Hungarian
officer, 1914.
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Left
without family and without a home, Momčilo went to find the 6th Artillery
Division of the Serbian army, which was near Gučevo at the
time. Major Stevan Tucović, brother of Dimitrije Tucović, accepted Gavrić into his unit
after hearing about what had happened, and assigned Miloš Mišović, a soldier in
the unit, to be Gavrić's caretaker. The same evening, he took revenge by
showing his unit the location of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers, and
participated in the bombardment, as told by his son Branislav Gavrić in an
interview.
At
the age of 8, after the Battle of Cer, he was promoted to the rank of kaplar
(Corporal) by the commander of his unit, and given a military uniform.
When
his unit was sent to Thessaloniki, Major Tucović sent him to Sorovits where he
hastily went through the equivalent of four grades of elementary education.
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Momčilo Gavrić and a Serbian soldier during
WW1.
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Group photo Momcilo Gavric and other Serbian
soldiers during a priest's visit.
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In
Kajmakčalan, vojvoda Mišić was stunned when he saw a uniformed
ten-year-old boy in the trenches. Major Tucović explained the situation to him;
that Gavrić had been with them since the Battle of Cer, and that he had both
been taught discipline and been wounded during his time in the unit. Mišić
promoted Gavrić to podnarednik (Lance Sergeant), and the order was read
out to the whole division.
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Photograph of Momčilo Gavrić with a wounded
arm, 1918.
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Momcilo Gavric after finishing his education
in Faversham, Kent, 1921.
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Post-war life
After
the liberation of Belgrade, Major Tucović made sure that Gavrić would receive
aid from a British mission that was helping war orphans in Serbia. He was sent
to England, and finished his education at the Henry Wreight School in
Faversham, Kent (now merged into Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham),
graduating in 1921. He returned to Serbia the same year, after Serbian Prime
Minister Nikola Pašić ordered the return of all children to Serbia. In
Trbušnica, he was reunited with his three brothers who had survived the murders
in 1914.
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Momcilo Gavric in military uniform. The
website where this is taken from mentions the year 1928, although this is most
probably wrong, it should be 1929 or later, according to a better source.
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According
to his son Branislav, Momčilo Gavrić had an incident with the law in 1929. He
was working in Šabac and Belgrade when he reached the age of conscription, and
at the military barracks in Slavonska Požega, he reported that he already had
been in the army during the war. He also said that he had been wounded, and had
received the Albanian Commemorative Medal. However, an ethnic Croat in the
Yugoslav Royal Army tried to push Gavrić into signing a confession that he had
told a lie. He refused, and was sent to prison, spending two months there.
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Momcilo Gavric with his wife Kosara, in 1939.
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After
another period of military service, he returned to Belgrade, where he learnt
graphic design and took his driver's license. There, he also married his wife
Kosara, with whom he worked in the Vapa paper mill.
Branislav
Gavrić further told that during the Second World War, Momčilo was imprisoned
twice by the German occupying forces. After the war, in 1947, OZNA arrested him for
claiming that the Albanians were no brothers to Serbs and saying how he
"felt that brotherhood of theirs in 1915, when they were killing us",
during a time when the presidents of Yugoslavia and Albania (Josip Broz Tito
and Enver Hoxha) were great friends.
In
1987, he participated in a Yugoslav documentary about his experiences during
the First World War.
Legacy
Momčilo
Gavrić died in Belgrade in 1993. There are memorials dedicated to him on the
island of Korfu and in the Jadar Museum in Loznica. In 2014, a street in
Loznica was named after him.
On
2 April 2015, the Serbian government decided to raise a monument in Belgrade
dedicated to Gavrić.
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Momčilo Gavrić on Korfu, 1916.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.dailyfailcenter.com/245873]
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