Philip Leslie Alfred Bolton
Philip L A Bolton
Phillip, Son of William Edward Granville and Georgina (nee Curgenven) Bolton, was born in Addlestone, Surrey in 1897. In 1914 William and Georgina boarded a ship in London, bound for Wellington, and emigrated with their family to New Zealand, settling at 9 Seddon Road, Hamilton West, Waikato. At the age of seventeen Philip, and his three brothers, Frank, Walter and George, found themselves in a new land and Philip obtained work as a motor mechanic.
Four years later, in 1916 with the Great War raging, the British Empire were looking to the dominions to provide the armys of men needed to continue the fighting and on 23rd August 1916, Philip now aged 19, joined the New Zealand Machine Gun Corp as Private 31010. On the 19th January 1917 Philip embarked on the ship Ulimaroa as part of the 21st Reinforcements Specialist Company, Machine Gun Section and 67 days later, on 27th March, he arrived in Plymouth, England. Philip's company then became part of the 4th Battalion, New Zealand Machine Gun Corp and he was sent to France/Flanders (Belgium).
In Flanders, as part of the 4th Battalion, Philip and his Company found themselves fighting on the Gravenstafel Ridge in the mud of the 3rd battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele. It was here on the 4th of October, 1917 (sixty five days after the battle started) that Philip was killed. When he died Philip was twenty one years old. Philip was buried near to where he died on Gravenstafel Ridge but during the remaining course of the battle, Philips grave was lost and he is now commemorated in the New Zealand Apse of the Tyne Cot memorial, located in Tyne Cot Cemetery, near the village of Passchendaele. Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the world and the Tyne Cot memorial has a total of 34,874 men listed on its walls, 1,166 of which are New Zealanders (listed on 9 panels) all of which died during the battle of Passchendaele in October 1917 near Gravenstafel.
Map
Map depicting the developments of the battle of Passchendaele,
showing Ypres in the bottom left corner and Passchendaele in the top right.
The approximate location of Philip's death is marked in red
Memorial
Tyne Cot Memorial
New Zealand Apse
Memorial Panel containing Philips Name
Philips Name on the Panel