Biography

Family background

Arthur Bootland was born in Collingham on the 14th November 1893, the youngest of nine children of William and Elizabeth Bootland. By 1911 Arthur was a farm labourer in Compton, Collingham.

Service record

Arthur’s service record has not survived and we have to piece his service together from other records. From Arthur’s medal entitlement, we know that he first served as 39507 Private Bootland in the 11th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment (11/W.Yorks) before transfers to the 2/W.Yorks, the 2/5th W.Yorks, the 8/W.Yorks and finally to the 9th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (9/KOYLI) where he got a new service number as 64830 Private Bootland.

Arthur Bootland was Killed in Action on 24th August 1918 during part of a series of the Allied attacks now known as the Battle of Albert to clear the Germans from that town and to drive them back. Pte Arthur Bootland was 24 when he died and he has no known grave, being commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial to the over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8th August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos and who have no known grave.

Arthur's eldest brother, Walter Bootland, also lost his life during World War One.