Jacob Bolton
Jacob Bolton was born 5 November 1891 in Yorkshire, England. His parents, Benjamin and Isabel, lived at 37 High Street, North Oremsby, Middlesborough, England. His uncles, JP and W Bolton, are both listed in his war will as the executors of his will. Sarah J. Bolton was listed as a witness to that will, but its not clear from the papers what the relationship to Jacob was.
He enlisted 22 September 1914 in Valcartier with the 14th Royal Montreal Regiment. Prior to the war, he served with the 45th Regiment in Victoria County, which seems to be his main connection to the area. No other family has been found. He was listed as a grocer by trade, but there are no details of employers that have been found.
The exact details of Jacob Bolton’s death are not known, but the 14th Battalion war diary notes fierce shelling and constant barrages in the Ypres and St Julien areas where the 14th Battalion had been billeting in St Jean, after being in the St Julien front line trenches for 5 days prior to 21 Apr 1915. The St Julien trenches were noted to be in bad condition during this time, with
“nothing special to report, casualties 7 killed 15 wounded”. On 22 Apr 1915 at about 5pm,
“the order was received for the Battalion to stand to arms”, and the billet rest was over. The 14th was moved up to reinforce the 13th and 16th Battalions, and
“at 3:30am Saturday Apr 24th a very heavy bombardment was opened by the enemy with high explosive shrapnel on this new line of trenches which had apparently been accurately ranged by the German artillery as almost every shell hit. After about two hours of this shelling the men of the two battalions were forced to retire having been literally blown out of the trenches”. The Battalion was moved several times after this, and under heavy shell fire the entire time until after 30 Apr 1915. Bolton was listed as KIA in St Julien with burial location not known, and with a 6 day period that was assumed to be the time of his death (21-27 Apr 1915).
Jacob Bolton’s name is on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, in Ypres, France, commemorating the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. He was 23 years old.
