Category Archives: Army

Charles Edwin Bostwick

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Other Regiments, Trinitiy Congregational Church War Memorial

Charles Edwin Bostwick
Lance Corporal 46143
2nd Battalion Essex Regiment.

 Bostwick CE name

Charles Edwin Bostwick was the eldest son of Mr. Charles Henry and Mrs. Lucy Bostwick of 64 Amity Rd. Reading.  The 1911 census has filled in the details of his life. Charles Bostwick’s occupation is given as a sewing machine canvasser, his two children were in school. Information relating to his death has come from the CWGC record. His name is to be found on Panel 7 of the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. 

 The Vis-en-Artois Memorial commemorates 9,832 names of those who fell in the 1918 advance in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos. In the cemetery lie over 1,700 British and 582 Canadians who died in the capture of the sector on August 27th 1918.  It was 3km along the road that the Canadian Corps broke and turned the German position on September 2nd 1918, the day Charles Bostwick lost his life. He was aged 19.

Charles Edwin Bostwick is also commemorated on the Trinity Congregational Church war memorial which is to be rededicated in the Reading Minster church of St. Mary the Virgin in time for the centenary of the Great War.

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.

CIMG2149

 

 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.