BOOTH

		Source
		CWGC	SDGW	Uttoxeter Advertiser	Other
Parents	Thomas and Louisa Booth				6a
Position in the family	7^th child, 6^th son				6a
Where born	Uttoxeter, Staffordshire		Yes		2
When born	About 1877				6a
	June 1877				8a
	About 1879				4
	About 1880				6c
Address	Balance Hill, Uttoxeter			1b	2
	Self at time of enlistment: 8 Silver Street, Uttoxeter				8a
	Sister: Smithfield Road			1b
Spouse	Yes			1b
Children	2			1b
Employment Before Joining up	Moulder at the Leighton Ironworks			1b	8a
Employment Before Joining up	Leighton Ironworks				2
Where enlisted	Uttoxeter		Yes		2
Regiment	North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)	Yes	Yes	1b	2, 7, 8a, 8b
Unit	8^th Bn	Yes	Yes
Unit	8^th (S) Bn.				2
Rank	Private	Yes	Yes	1b, 1c, 1d	2, 7, 8b
Service Number	17522	Yes	Yes		2, 7
Date of Death	25^th October 1916	Yes	Yes		2, 7
Date of Death	23^rd October 1916 - WRONG			1d
Age at time of death	37			1b
Where Killed or died	Somme - Thiepval
How he died	Killed in Action			1b, 1d	2, 7
Location of Grave or Memorial	Stump Road Cemetery, Grandcourt - Grave A. 25.	Yes
Where commemorated	Uttoxeter Town War Memorial				2, 3
Awards	1915 Star F5B1 Page 37				7
	Victory Medal F/104BY Page Y12				7
	British Medal F/104BY Page Y12				7

The Census Return for 1881^[6a] shows that he was living with his parents at Seven Acres, Uttoxeter. The family consisted of his two parents and a total of seven sons and daughters.

By the time the 1901 Census was taken^[6c] his mother was now head of the household and she only had Alfred and a boarder living at home. Presumably her husband had died and her financial status had taken a downturn? The other children had evidently flown the nest.

Before the war Alfred was a well-known footballer in the Uttoxeter district and on one occasion he broke his thigh while playing in a match^[1b].

His obituary in the Uttoxeter Advertiser^1b said that he joined the North Staffordshire Regiment soon after the outbreak of hostilities and participated in severe fighting^1b].

His service record in the National Archives⁸ provides the following information:

He enrolled in the North Staffordshire Regiment on 15^th May 1915 at Lichfield^8a, having previously signed-up at Uttoxeter^8a. At the time he was living at 8 Silver Street, Uttoxeter^8a.

He was 37 years and 11 months old^8a, which gives us his date of birth as June 1887.

He went to the Western Front on the 18^th of July 1915. ^{[2a, 7]} and served with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) during the winter of 1915 to 1916. The townsfolk sent their servicemen a Christmas parcel each, and during the first week of January 1916 the Uttoxeter Advertiser published an article listing the men who had sent letters of grateful acknowledgement’. Alfred was one of them. ^[1a]

He was taken out of the line with Shell Shock on 23^rd March 1916^8b and returned to the front at some stage afterwards. We can only speculate on how he must have felt while making his way back.

His sister received a letter from him that was dated 18th October 1916, in which he said that his regiment was about to engage in a big battle. There seems little doubt that he fell in the subsequent fighting of that battle^[1b] as he died only a week later.

Alfred is buried in Grave A. 25. in Stump Road Cemetery, Grandcourt, which is in the Somme area.

His Brother, Albert Booth, was serving in the Yorkshire and Lancaster regiment when news of Alfred’s death was received.^[2] He survived the war.