Biography of Private Robert Morton Booth (1960)
2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Formerly 10th Lincolnshire Regiment
Died 23rd October 1916

• Name: Maria Morton
• DOB: 1854
• Place Of Birth: Boston, Lincolnshire, England
• Marriage: 1876 Bourne District

• Robert’s cousin Joseph Morton also fought and were killed in WW1. He can be found on our page dedicated to the Bourne War Memorial.

Marriage

• No marriage for Robert has been found and because of his age we can assume that he never had the opportunity to marry.

Newspaper Mentions

• Sheffield Daily Telegraph Wednesday 13th December 1916
  MISSING
  LINCOLNS
  Booth (1960), R. (Harling)

• War Office Casualty List 13th December 1916
  N.C.O’S and Men
  Previously Reproted Wounded, Now Reported Wounded and Missing
  Lincolnshire Regiment
  Booth, 1960 Private R (Harting)

Military Records

Medals

• The British Medal
• The Victory Medal

Memorials

• UK:
• Horbling, Roll of Honour in St Andrew’s Church

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
• In memory of Private Robert Morton Booth, 1960, 2nd Bn., Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 23 October 1916 Age 24
• Son of Robert and Maria Booth, of Bridge End, Horbling, Billingborough, Lincs.
• Remembered with honour, Thiepval Memorial
• Pier and Face 1 C.

© Picture taken by South Lincolnshire War Memorials

Robert attested for military service with the 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, in Lincoln, on the 8th April 1916 at the age of 24 years and 90 days. At the time he was a labourer and his description was noted as 5ft 7 inches, he weighed 143lbs and had a 36inch chest.

After training with the 10th battalion, Robert Joined the 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on the 4th August 1916 and continued home service until the 24th September, being posted to France the day after.

He joined his battalion, who were at the time in the Hohenzollern Sector near Loos.  The Loos area had seen some heavy fighting in actions made against the German 6th Army in the battle of Loos both in 1915 and early 1916, although focus had now turned south to the Somme.

The Battalion had been in and out of the trenches in normal rotation during September and were in the front line of the right sub-sector between the 25th and 29th September. During this last period in the front line trenches the Battalion lost 4 men killed and 11 wounded.

After being relieved on the 29th September the Battalion fell back into Brigade support trenches near Vermelles. During this time they provided working parties before once again going into the front line on the 3rd October. This pattern of 4 days in the front line and then relived back into support trenches went on until the 10th October when they were finally relived by the 9th Lincolns and marched back to the camp at Houchin.

The very next day (11th October) they marched to billets in Lozinghem. They only rested there for two days undergoing training before they were on the march once again, this time to the rail head at Lillers.

9.51am on the 14th October saw the battalion entrain at Lillers and arrived at Point Remy at 4pm where they detrained and marched to billets at Airaines. The next day saw them resting in the billets before once again being moved, although this time the transport was Motor Busses and the destination was Ville. That same day they marched to the Citadel Camp at Meaulte in the Somme sector of the front line. For the next two days the battalion were in the Camp in Citadel.

The 19th October saw them heading back to the trenches. A march to Trunes Wood, where they halted for dinners and at 4.15pm they proceeded up to the front line trenches near Lesbeoufs to relieve the 8th Bedfordshire regiment.

An entry in the Battalion diary for the 21st and 22nd notes that that artillery action was great on both sides.

The entry for the 23rd describes the actions of the day and a transcription of this follows;

At daybreak the Battalion took up its assembly positions in trenches dug right before by the 2nd Royal Berks immediately behind the front line.

2.30pm

The Battalion assaulted Zenith Trench in 4 lines. The front two lines were composed of W & Z companies, W in right and Z in left. Y & X Companies formed the 2nd 2 lines in support to W & Z Companies respectively. The 2nd Middlesex were on the right and the 2nd Rifle Brigade on the left. Zero hour which was to have been at 11.30am, was postponed to 2.30pm owing to fog. At about 1.45pm the enemy could be seen working along Zenith Trench from our right with the object of getting back via Eclipse trench but owing to it being blocked they were unable to do so. This caused them to be very thick at our objective. At Zero hour the Battalion assaulted following the creeping barrage as close as possible. “W” Company under 2nd Lieut Drysdale, “Z” Company under Captain Burton, “Y” Company under 2nd Lieut Spicer and  “X” Company under 2nd Lieut Coney leave as soon as the Battalion started to assault. A very gallant German officer ran down his own parapet and got his men up and stopped us by rapid rifle fire. “X” & “Y” Companies immediately pushed on to support the front two lines but suffered very heavily from machine gun fire and only a small portion of “W” and “Y” Companies on the right managed to enter the German Trench with the Middlesex who had captured their 1st objective with very slight loss. The Rifle Brigade on the left did not reach their objective.

5pm

The Battalion was collected and proceeded back to Rose Trench in Brigade Support

24th October – In Rose Trench Reorganising

25th October – In Rose Trench Carrying Parties and Stretcher Bearing

The action of the 23rd October saw the Battalion losses as 23 Killed, 129 Wounded and 120 Missing.

An entry for the 31st October 1916 in Robert’s war records, shows that he went missing in action and later additions to his records show that he was listed as died in action on the 23rd October 1916 described as above from the Battalion diary.

Sources

• WW1 Soldier’s Records (www.ancestry.co.uk)
• British Newspaper Archive.
• Fold 3
• Find My Past
• Genealogist
• Forces War Records
• British Army Service Numbers
• War Gratuity Calculator
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• National Archives – Battalion War Diaries
• General Registry Office