Private James Booth

Private James Booth, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He died of wounds in France on 26th April 1916, aged 22. He had been born in Berwick and was the son of George and Isabella Booth of Berwick and is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France. Around this time the Battalion held trenches in the Kemmel sector of the Ypres Salient and suffered intermittent casualties from shelling. Prior to the War he was a grocer with Messrs Renton and Co. He had taken part in the action at St. Julien in April 1915 where he was wounded by a bursting shell His brother George also fell ( see above ). The photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to commemorate the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient where nearby on 26th April 1915 the division had fought its first action of the War during the Battle of St Julien only days after landing on the Continent.