Marriage age

My DIL used to teach in a secondary school in London where most pupils were from ethnic minority backgrounds. All too often her 13-15year old female pupils would either disappear, or would say that they were going to homeland of their families. Some knew what was happening and told the teachers they wouldn’t be back. Others would say they were going on holiday. Some of these girls were educationally gifted. It is heartbreaking. As much as I think it’s a very positive thing for society to be multicultural, I do think that it’s so wrong to put young girls born and bred in this country into forced marriages. This law is well overdue. They do however need to clamp down on parents that do this to their daughters. I think a severe custodial sentence plus heavy fines would help. It should be the girls choice as to what they want to do.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/09/metal-spoon-alert-authorities-honour-based-abuse-leeds

by the way, can i remind everyone about the teaspoon safety alert re forced marriage abroad.
if a person, usually a girl, fears they are being taken abroad maybe under excuse of a holiday/family funeral, to be pressured into marrying there, they are told to secret a metal teaspoon about their person.
this will sound the metal detector at airport and they will be taken aside to check.
the aim is to get into a side room alone with some security person where they can ask for help.
i wonder if this could be extended re domestic abuse, and x-rays in A&E etc.
the staff need to be trained to be alert to this.
like the emergency call handlers who know why they are being asked for a pizza.
sorry to go off at a tangent.

I was quite surprised by this announcement as I thought it was eighteen already. Anything younger is too young. And, yes, if it helps to stamp out arranged marriages then this is good.
21 was the legal age without permission when I married in 1958.

for those two posters who say it is a bad thing, can you say more ?
i agree that years ago it was a disgrace to be pregnant/give birth without being married.
but that has not been the case for nearly 40 years.
so what would be the harm of having to wait until age 18 to marry, even if pregnant ?

Gretna green used to be the romantic option, blacksmiths and all. i know a few people,some foreigners, who married there back in the day. Think its still popular today.
I didn't want to ask pernission, so we married 2 weeks after my 21st birthday, in 1969. Had suggested living in sin but dh refused. Those were the days my friends...swinging 60s eh? Ha ha. Passed us by.

I signed my fathers name for my sister. She knew he didn’t want her to marry because she was pregnant.

That is good news.

In 1970, aged 18, I announced I was going to 'live in sin' and I remember my Mum cursing Harold Wilson (I think it was him) for changing the law so she couldn't do anything about it!

I should have said I came of age on that date, not getting married then!

Young people have to stay in education until 18 so it makes sense for minimum marriage age to line up with this. Teens are 16 in the year they do GCSEs and it seems absurd that they could be married then.
I believe the age of marriage without parental consent changed from 21 to 18 on 1st January 1970 when the age of majority was lowered from 21 to 18. I was one of the teens affected by this.

We got married in 1960. I was almost 19 and dh was 20. We had to have the signed permission of both our parents.

I think that it's good news, should have been done years ago. How can you be old enough to get married but too young to vote? Age of consent should also be raised.

I married aged 20 in 1966. Not only did I have to get my parents permission, but that of my Commanding Officer as I was serving in the Army at the time. I have no idea what I would have done if she had said “No”! Thrown a brick through her office window? My father was so gobsmacked that anyone wanted to marry me, he would have signed anything!

Well I posted about Victorian times because I had seen it whilst doing family history. I couldn't remember what the situation was re. parental consent in the 1960s. I wasn't thinking about marrying so it went over my head.

I agree with poshpaws that we have a situation where the person can legally have intercourse at 16 but cannot marry for another 2 years. Has this been thought through?

It's good for those who have arranged marriages forced on them which is awful but not so good for everyone else. Personally I was not ready to marry till I was in my late 20's but I do know happily married people who tied the knot at 16. It is still 16 in Scotland - maybe be an upsurge in Gretna Green again!

I married in 1970 aged 19. The law had been changed before then. I rather wish it hadn’t and that my parents had refused their consent.

The new law will help stop forced marriage, and I agree with it,

I married in 1969 and still had to get parental permission under 21. So the law must have been changed sometime in the 70s,

I think it's a terrible idea. The age of consent to sexual intercourse is 16. If a 16 or 17 year old got pregnant, they were free to marry. Now they can't - that's not progress.

(And before anyone says marriage at 16 never lasts - one of my dearest friends was married at 22 to his 16 year old wife, and their marriage was a great one, filled with both natural children and many foster children until his death at age 64.)

If it helps to stop forced marriages, it's a good thing.

i think it was until 1968 or 1969.
in england and wales anyway.

i remember when the age of majority was 21, and i'm not a victorian !
you must be v young !
it was until the late 1960s, so not that long ago.
i know of 3 sisters who all married at age 21.
their father had told them growing up that he would not sign anything to do with marriage, so he couldn't be blamed later if it went wrong. so they all had to wait until they were 21. it was more common then to marry young, esp for women.

Here's a little bit of history. I believe back in Victorian times you needed parental consent to marry under the age of 21.

As long as the forced marriage is registered in the system, which is not a guarantee

Yes it is to more about stopping arranged marriage, as it also illegal to take someone under 18 abroad to get married and you can be prosecuted if you do .