Life story retold by Yota Dimitriadi
John Ritso Nelson BOLTON was born on 24th July 1893 in Carmarthen. He was the eldest son of Colonel Arthur Heely BOLTON and Mary Augusta (Gussie) BOLTON (nee KERLY) of Elm House, King Street, Laugharne, South Wales. Mary was the only daughter of the artist Frederick KERLY of Montpelier Terrace Ilfracombe. Col and Mrs Bolton married on October 29th at the Parish Church of Ilfracombe.
The paternal family had a long association with the Services, including the Nelsons and the Muspeatt families. The paternal grandfather was Col Douglas Shand BOLTON, Sidmouth. It was from this association that John and his brothers were given their Christian names (all three brothers had the middle name Nelson). Their dad Colonel Arthur Hely BOLTON died on Monday 15 March 1937 at the age of 72. For 30 years he was part of the Indian Army (9th and 13th Bombay Staff Corps) taking part in early expeditions to the Tibet. He concluded his active service as Acting General of the Calcutta Brigade.
The 1901 census shows the family living at Fullerton House, next to the Browns Hotel at Langharne with their aunt, Elizabeth Leach, their sister Mary and two servants. Their youngest brother Elliott Nelson BOLTON was not listed in that census. Elliot married grew up to work as a junior engineer for the de Havilland Company (1934) before he moved on to work for Blackburn Aero Engineering Co.
He was educated at Suffolk Hall. Cheltenham, Pelham House, Folkestone, and Bedford Grammar School, of which was elected ‘head boy’.
In 1912 he entered the Royal Military Academy. Woolwich, where he won an interpretership 2nd class for French and M Cambon’s medal the “Grand Concours”. He was gazetted second lieutenant in the R.F.A. in August 1914, serving in the 104th Battery, 22nd Brigade, which was attached to the 7th Division of the British Expeditionary Force. By the end of May 1915, John had already been active in the battle field, taking part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battles of Aubers Ridge and Festubert. He was mentioned in-the despatches for his bravery, recommended for the R.H.A. in June 1915 and promoted lieutenant. By 25th September 1915, John was at Vermelles, where the 22nd Brigade, RFA took part in the opening barrage of the Battle of Loos. It was his fourth battle in a year.
The battalion’s war diary for 25th September states that John was severely wounded at 1.30pm by German counter-battery fire in the advance of the Battle of Loos. He died two days later on 27th September 1915. He is buried at the Fouquieres Churchyard Extension, France.
John was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.), for his services on the day he was wounded. The award could not be granted as John died and it is not being awarded posthumously.
Less than a year later at the naval Battle of Jutland, his brother Stewart (Stuart) Bladen BOLTON, a midshipman in the Royal Navy since the age of 12, died on 31 May 1916, aged 18. His battle cruiser, the HMS Indefatigable, was hit with ferocity by shells from a German ship in the Battle of Jutland and sunk. Only 2 of the 1018 crew survived.
Both are remembered on the Laugharne War memorials. The brothers are also mentioned on the Cemetery Junction Wargraves site.
Their names were mentioned among 35 comrades who had died in the Great War on the Remembrance Sunday Ceremony in 1943 (Welshman – Friday 12 November 1943). They were two of the 66 men with Laugharne connections to perish in WW1.
The two brothers are commemorated on the maternal family grave at Reading Old. Their grandparents, Marian and Fred John KERLY, both died in 1913 within months from each other. Marian died in Reading and Fred in Totnes. It is not clear why the family chose Reading as their burial ground.
Commemorated in Division 69, Row B, Plot 14