36th Heavy Artillery Group Gunner Frederick Herbert Booth

Frederick Herbert Booth was born in 1891 in Sydney, NSW, the youngest son and third of four children of George and Florence Nightingale Booth. 

The family came to WA when Frederick was a child and he was educated at Perth Boys’ School. He then passed his civil service exams and began working as a clerk. After 18 months with the senior cadets, he transferred to the 11th Australian Infantry Regiment (militia), retiring at the rank of lieutenant.

Frederick enlisted in the AIF on 21 May 1916, a month shy of his 26th birthday, and was assigned as a gunner to the 10th Field Artillery Brigade.

While in training at Blackboy Hill he married his sweetheart, Lillian Victoria Kent (25). This is their beautiful wedding photo, taken at Dease Studio in Barrack Street.

In October Frederick was promoted to the rank of corporal before being sent to Melbourne for further training at Maribrynong Camp, where he was promoted to acting bombardier.

Two days before Christmas 1916 he embarked with the 9th Reinforcements to the 10th Field Artillery Brigade on RMS Orontes and sailed to England. Frederick arrived in Plymouth in February 1917 and was transferred to the 338th Siege Battery the following month, his rank reverting to gunner. In July he was transferred to the 36th Heavy Artillery and deployed to France.

He remained unscathed for the next two months but in Belgium on 4 October 1917, during the Battle for Broodseinde Ridge, the guns of the 36th Siege Battery came under heavy attack. It wasn’t until February 1918 Lilian received formal notification her young husband had been confirmed killed in action; one of the many lost in that vicious offensive. He was buried the same day, they said, at Ypres Prison Cemetery.

Amongst his recovered effects were photos, a fountain pen and letters which were, in time, sent back Lilian in East Perth. Later, she received his British War and Victory Medals, his Memorial Scroll and Plaque, and organised the inscription on his tombstone to read 'He gave his life that we might live.'

In 1921 Lillian married Alma Thick Holmes Bloom, a returned 16th Battalion private who, as battalion scout, was awarded a Military Medal for his actions at Messines Ridge in June 1917. In time, Alma and Lilian had two children; a son, John, and a daughter, Alma.

Lilian was widowed for a second time when Alma died in November 1939 aged just 46. Lilian died in 1971 aged 79.

Lilian’s grandchildren had been unaware their grandmother had married before marrying their grandfather, Alma, but on seeing this beautiful bride they confirmed, with a poignant mix of shock, sadness and delight, it was indeed their grandmother, Lilian. More, one of her great granddaughters is her living image.

During The Soldiers of Barrack Street exhibition in April to June 2016, visitors were invited to place a remembrance poppy on soldiers' images as a tribute if they wished. By the close of the exhibition, this photo of Fred and Lilian was lovingly adorned with four poppies.

We were so pleased Lillian found love a second time, and had the chance to raise a happy family. We suspect it was they who paid that lovely tribute to her, and her first, lost love. 

https://www.thesoldiersofbarrackstreet.com/gunner-frederick-herbert-booth-36th-heavy-artillery-group?rq=booth