David
 
I'm sure you are familiar with the law in Britain already, but just in case - this is the relevant legislation for England and Wales as I understand it:
 

1886               Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act

                        Sale of alcoholic drinks to children under thirteen banned

 

1901               Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act 

                        1886 Act repealed

Sale of alcoholic drinks to children under fourteen banned (except quantities of not less than one pint in sealed bottles)

 

1908               Children's Act (Section 119)

Children under fourteen banned from licensed premises 

Giving alcohol to children under five banned

 

1910               Licensing (Consolidation) Act

'On' sale of spirits to under-sixteens banned

 

1923               Intoxicating Liquor (Sale to Persons Under Eighteen) Act

Under-eighteens not to be sold alcohol for consumption on licensed premises

16-18s can be served alcohol to be consumed with a meal in separate part of premises

James Nicholls


________________________________

From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society on behalf of David Fahey
Sent: Sat 01/12/2007 21:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: minimum drinking age before 1920


Is there any systematic study of minimum drinking age in the USA before National Prohibition?  Any comparative dates for other Western countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? I assume that in the USA the minimum legal drinking age was 21, but I have no evidence for it.  By the way, I know that in recent times before the principle of equal rights for men and women had been accepted, there sometimes were different minimum ages for their drinking (as for their right to marry without parental consent).  I vaguely recall that Oklahoma (?) may have set a minimum drinking age for men at 21 and for women at 18, paralleling the marriage law.