Abstract: The King’s College strike of March 1944 led to the conscription of eight students into the British Army and represented a major event in World War Two Nigeria. This article challenges understandings of the strike that present the event as solely comprehensible in terms of the subsequent development of nationalist politics. Instead, it argues that the strike represents a key moment in which Lagosian elites defended their own interests, personified in the young male strikers at King’s. It focuses on the voices of the strikers themselves, as well as those who advocated on their behalf. Situating the strike in relation to the historiography of youth, gender, and nation in 1940s Africa, the article contends that the King’s strike deserves far greater recognition in Nigerian history.