Name
Benjamin George Botwright
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
28389
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Battalion
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Benjamin Botwright was one of four Bedmond brothers that served during the Great War. His father John, and mother Emma lived near the White Hart Public House at Bedmond at the time of the 1901 Census and had four sons and two daughters. John worked as a Carpenter. In 1911 the Census recorded that Benjamin lived at Church Hill Bedmond, worked as a Gardener Domestic, and lived with his brother Edward. On 26th December 1911 he married Lydia Turner, and during the next two years the couple had a son and daughter.
Benjamin attested at Watford on 20th October 1915, just after his second daughter was born, and was mobilised on 10th April 1916. He had been employed as a Gardener, and worked for Mr H.K Henderson of Serge Hill, Bedmond for 13 years.
He was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in May 1916 serving with the 9th Bedfordshire’s. His Service Record noted that he was sent to France on 25th July 1916. In January 1917 the Parish Magazine noted that Benjamin had moved to the 2nd Bedfordshire’s, but it was most likely that he had transferred to this unit in 1916, probably around the time that he arrived in France, as the 9th Bedfordshire was a battalion that stayed at Home and sent drafts of new troops to the battalions at the Front.
In November 1917 the Parish Magazine reported that Benjamin had been wounded and his Service Record confirmed that he received a gun-shot wound to the left leg on 10th November.
He was evacuated from the Front Line and sent back to England on 16th November 1917. After treatment and recovery he appeared before a Medical Board on 4th February 1918 and was discharged on 5th March 1918. His Service Record noted that “He has been given £1 and a suit of plain clothes, and a great coat and has returned to Church Hill Bedmond”. Benjamin received a weekly Pension of 27 shillings and 6 pence (approximately £1-37p), to be reviewed in 39 weeks.
Benjamin and his brothers Edward and Percy all survived the War, as did their brother in law, Herbert Hutchings who had married their sister Florence. However Benjamin’s brother Arthur Botwright was killed in action in August 1917.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
