BOOTS, Walter

Walter Boots was the husband of Eliza Boots and lived at 15 Green Lane, Lye. He enlisted in the Worcesters and was sent to the 3rd Battalion. They served on the Somme in 1916 for the attack on Thiepval village and in the Spring of 1917 were at Messines. A few weeks later they moved north and were in the second line for the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres. On the second day, 1st August, they took over from the troops who had battled to win the Bellewaerde Ridge and stayed in the trenches for five days under pouring rain and intense gas shelling. They withdrew for five days and were then given the task of attacking the village of Westhoek. It was taken on the 11th after some desperate fighting but at huge cost. Private Walter Boots was among those killed in action. He was 30 years of age and is buried at New Irish Farm Cemetery, Ypres, (XXIX C 18) and commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.