Pte 52872 Benjamin Bottomley

• Age: 27
• From: Nelson, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Tuesday 3rd July 1917
• Commemorated at: Railway Dugout B.g. Zillebeke
  Panel Ref: Sp.Mem F.8

Benjamin Bottomley was born in December 1889 at Nelson and was the son of Sam and Mary Bottomley (nee Berry), of 17 Water Street, Nelson.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 17, Water Street, Nelson, Burnley.

The father Sam aged 36, born 1865 is a property repairer who was born in Bradford. His wife Mary is aged 35, born 1866 no occupation listed and was born in Earby, Yorkshire. They have four children, who were all born in Nelson, Benjamin aged 11, born 1890, Robert aged 8, born 189, Lilian aged 5 born 1896 and Clara aged 3 born 1898.  

The 1911 Census shows Benjamin living at 3 Brunswick Street Nelson Lancashire.  

The father Samuel now aged 46, occupation mason and builder. His wife Mary is aged 45, no occupation. They have been married for 23 years and have had five children, Benjamin aged 21, occupation Cotton yard agent, Allan aged 18, a butcher’s apprentice, Lilian aged 15, a confectionery apprentice, Clare aged 13, born 1898 and Walter aged 9, born 1902 are both at school.

He enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 52872 when he died of wounds on the 03rd July, 1917 aged 27.

He now rests at Railway Dugout Burial Ground, Zillebeke, Belgium.

The commune of Zillebeke contains many Commonwealth cemeteries as the front line trenches ran through it during the greater part of the First World War.

Railway Dugouts Cemetery is 2 Kms west of Zillebeke village, where the railway runs on an embankment overlooking a small farmstead, which was known to the troops as Transport Farm. The site of the cemetery was screened by slightly rising ground to the east, and burials began there in April 1915. They continued until the Armistice, especially in 1916 and 1917, when Advanced Dressing Stations were placed in the dugouts and the farm. They were made in small groups, without any definite arrangement and in the summer of 1917 a considerable number were obliterated by shell fire before they could be marked. The names "Railway Dugouts" and "Transport Farm" were both used for the cemetery.

At the time of the Armistice, more than 1,700 graves in the cemetery were known and marked. Other graves were then brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries in the vicinity, and a number of the known graves destroyed by artillery fire were specially commemorated. The latter were mainly in the present Plots IV and VII.

The cemetery now contains 2,459 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 430 of the burials are unidentified and 261 casualties are represented by special memorials. Other special memorials record the names of 72 casualties buried in Valley Cottages and Transport Farm Annexe Cemeteries whose graves were destroyed in later fighting.

VALLEY COTTAGES CEMETERY, ZILLEBEKE, was among a group of cottages on "Observatory Road", which runs Eastward from Zillebeke village. It contained the graves of 111 soldiers from the United Kingdom and Canada. It was in an exposed position during the greater part of the war.

TRANSPORT FARM ANNEXE was about 100 metres South-East of the Railway Dugouts Cemetery, on the road to Verbrandenmolen. The graves in it were removed to Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Zillebeke, but one officer, whose grave could not found, is specially commemorated here.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

Benjamin's grave was one of those destroyed and as such as the inscription on his headstone reads:

“THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT”

This phrase was decided upon by Rudyard Kipling and is used when the burial place of a soldier is not known. It is a biblical reference from Ecclesiasticus 44:13 which reads in full as: "Their seed shall remain forever, and their glory shall not be blotted out". 

Benjamin is also commemorated on the family headstone located at Nelson Cemetery, Plot 6 Grave 529, Walton Road, Nelson.

Probate on his estate was given on the 19^th May, 1925 to Mary Bottomley widow of £245 5s 9d.

We currently have no further information on Benjamin Bottomley, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.