PRIVATE 203682 FREDERICK BOTT, 2/5th WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 18th MAY 1918 AGED 36 YEARS.


PRIVATE 203682 FREDERICK BOTT, 2/5th WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 18th MAY 1918 AGED 36 YEARS.





Fred Bott’s death on the Western Front left his wife, Elizabeth a widow and four young children without a father. Born in Ilkley he had spent his whole life in the town before he was called up by the army in 1916. A gardener by trade he worked for Norman Daniel at one of the many nurseries that dotted Ilkley in the early years of the 20th Century and which provided fresh fruit and vegetables to local grocers. Fred was one of seven children born to Philip and Maria Bott who lived on Wellington Road although all his brothers and sisters had died in infancy leaving him the only surviving child. In 1908 he married Elizabeth Padgett and set up home in a small terraced house at 13 Wellington Road where they raised their young family.

In November 1916 Fred Bott was called up and joined the West Riding Regiment and by October of 1917 found himself in France assigned to the 2/5th Battalion of that regiment. On May 18th the following year the battalion was in the front line near to the village of Louvencourt in the Somme area. That night a group of men were sent out into No Mans land to dig trenches but as they completed this task a German machine gun opened fire on them and Fred was hit in the back. Badly wounded and reportedly unconscious he was dragged back to the British front line where he was found to be dead. Captain White, his commanding officer wrote to Elizabeth Bott, “It is with very great regret that I have to tell you that your husband, Private Fred Bott, who was in my company was killed last night.” He went on to say, “He was taken to a French village behind the lines and their properly buried in a military cemetery. A cross is being made and erected to his memory. It may be some consolation to know that your husband suffered no pain. All the officers and men of his company keenly feel that they have lost a reliable soldier and a good fellow. Please accept all our sympathy in your sudden and cruel bereavement. The enclosed 15 Francs were in your husband’s pocket when he was killed.”

Today Private Fred Bott lies in the British Military Cemetery at Bienvillers and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.

On his grave his wife Elizabeth had inscribed “TO MEMORY EVER DEAR”







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