Haydn BOOTH

3936, Private, b. 1896, Clayton d. Sat. 21st August 1915 (aged 19)

Haydn was the 4th out of 5 sons born to Samuel and Alice Booth. In 1901 the family are living at 104 Highgate Rd and on 1911 census they are living at 35 Horton Bank.

One of the youngest soldiers to go to war from Clayton, Haydn had enlisted on 9th January 1915 very close to his 19th birthday and left for France on May 15th of the same year with his battalion. His unit, the 1st/6th West Yorkshire’s was the local territorial unit of the army and had been calling up their men since the outbreak of the war.

Although Haydn was a member he would not have been allowed to train with them as at this point in the war the age to fight overseas was still 19. This unit was unlike the Pals in that all its troops had previous military training, even if it was only the statutory fortnight a year training.
Haydn was only in France for a matter of months before his death, but during this time was involved in the very heavy fighting that occurred during the Battle of Loos. Eventually, he was severely wounded in action and taken back to a nearby dressing station in a farmhouse by his battalion’s stretcher bearers, and died of his wounds twenty four hours later. He was laid to rest in the cemetery behind the dressing station, aptly called Hospital Farm Cemetery.

Haydn is buried at Hospital Farm Cemetery. Belgium. His headstone is inscribed “He answered duty’s call” .

Images courtesy of http://www.warcemetery.eu/pagina40.html

The 1911 census shows Alice and Samuel a having 5 children, all boys:

Francis William Booth b 1887

The 1891 census shows Francis aged 4 and his brother Hartley, aged 3 living at 15 Ann Street Great Horton with mother Alice and father Samuel, who was a Warp Twister. By 1911 the family has expanded to Francis and 4 brothers and Francis now aged 24 was a Mohair Spinning Overlooker. Francis aged 40, married Lavinia Horn on 14th October 1926, daughter of Constructional Engineer Herbert Horn, she was 27 and lived at 14 Gaythorne Terrace in Clayton. 1939 finds Francis and Lavinia living at 45 Grove Hall Avenue in Leeds and working as a Worsted Spinner and as an Air Raid Warden.

Hartley Mills Booth b 1888

Hartley Mills was married on 15th August 1914 to Edith Wood, the daughter of Mill Manager John Henry Wood who lived at Holme House, Clayton. They had a son on Oct1st 1915 and named the boy Haydn in memory of Hartleys brother Haydn who was killed just a couple of months earlier in August 1915. Hartley attested on 10th December 1915 into West Riding Regiment and posted on 9th September 1916. Hartley was recorded missing on 29th April 1917, and was taken as a German prisoner of war. He survived the war and was demobilised on 25th March 1919. The 1939 census shows Hartley working as a Worsted Mill Manufacturing cashier with Hayden, now aged 24 working as a Chartered Accountants Clerk and his sister Margaret, 19, working as a solicitors clerk. Hartley died on 10th March 1955.

With the Booth family and Haydn, having seemingly little connection to Clayton I suspect that it is Hartleys wife Edith who petitioned to add Haydn Booth to the Clayton Church memorial.

Tom Garfield Booth b 26 Oct 1892

Tom grew up with his brothers and family in Great Horton. I can’t find a military record for Tom, he would have been 22 in 1914 and so I would think he joined up and survived the war.

The 1939 register shows Tom and Jane living at Rose Garth, Keswick Bank in Wetherby, Tom is director of an engineering company manufacturing piston rings. Tom died on 1st January 1951 aged 63. His wife Jane died in 1993, aged 100.

Haydn Booth b 1896 d 21st Aug 1915

Jack Booth b 1906

Not much can be traced about Jack Booth. Too young for WW1 and probably too old in 1939 for WW2. His popular name and paucity of census information makes it difficult to track him down.