Category Archives: Graves

William Henry Bolton

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

William Henry Bolton
Private 17861
6th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment 

Division 66
Extension

Bolton WH photo Bolton WH grave

William Henry Bolton was the son of Frederick and Caroline Bolton, of Shinfield Road, Reading.  He is commemorated on the kerbs of the family grave in the Reading Cemetery. The grave number is 18155; the Berkshire Family History Society classification is 66E7.

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 William Bolton died of spotted fever (Meningitis) and is buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery. Location I.P.18A.  Wimereux was the Headquarters of the Q.M.A.A.C. and in 1919 the General Headquarters of the British Army.  Wimereux formed an important hospital centre which would account for William Bolton dying there. Due to ground subsidence in this cemetery the headstones are laid flat .

Lt.-Col. John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and poet is also buried in this cemetery.  He is famous for the poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’.  Unusually the headstones in the British portion of this cemetery are laid flat.

John Ritso Nelson Bolton and Stuart Bladen Bolton

Army, Commemorated name/s, Jutland, Loos, Navy, Other Regiments

John Ritso Nelson Bolton
Lieutenant
104th Battery 22nd Brigade
Royal Field Artillery

Division 69
Extension

 John Ritso Nelson Bolton and Stuart Bladen Bolton were the sons of Colonel A. H. and Mrs Mary A. Bolton, of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.  They are commemorated on the grave of ?.  The Berkshire Family History Society classification is 69B14.

John Ritso Nelson Bolton is buried in the Fouquieres Churchyard Extension, location Plot 1, grave number 39.  He died on the 25th September 1915, aged 22 years.  The village of Fouquieres is 1 kilometre southwest of Bethune and west of the British front line.  On the 25th September 1915 the Battle of Loos commenced.  Bombardment started on the 21st September.  The main Loos battleground was south of Bethune.  It is possible that John Bolton was either injured or killed in counter battery operations prior to the start of the battle.  Further research is needed.

 Stuart Bladen Bolton
Midshipman  R.N. H.M.S. “Indefatigable”, Royal Navy

 Stuart Bladen Bolton lost his life during the Battle of Jutland on the 31st May 1916.  He was aged 18.  Details of the Battle can be seen in the story of Charlie Wake Division 30.

Stuart Bladen Bolten is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon.  Panel number 10.

William Ernest Bolton

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

William E. Bolton
Private 8341
1st Batt. The Cameronians Scottish Rifles

 War Plot
Division 71 and 72

 Bolton WC photo

William Ernest Bolton’s family  lived at The Commercial Hall, Coley, Reading at the time that William’s death was registered with the CWGC. Family information has been obtained from Ancestry UK. The 1911 census indicates that his father was Henry James Bolton and his mother Louisa Bolton, his sister called May, who was four years younger. In 1911  the family home at 82 Coley Place, Reading.  Father Henry was listed as a wood yard labourer and May was a packer at the biscuit factory. In 1911 William, then 25, was recorded as an unemployed army reservist. In 1901, then aged 15, William was working as a labourer at the tin factory which would have been Huntley Bourne and Stevens. It is assumed that William was recalled to the colours as soon as war was declared but no military record exists to confirm this. William and May had two other siblings but no information has been found about them.

William died on February 9th 1917, of wounds received in action.  He had been in hospital at Northampton War Hospital.  He was 30. William Bolton has no headstone in the war plot but his name is commemorated on the screen wall.

Notice of death was published in the Standard 24th February 1917.