Ben Newton

Gunner. 161705. 144th Siege Battery. Royal Garrison Artillery.

Born: 1888.

Son of James? William and Ellen.

Brother of Elizabeth, Willie. Nellie and Ivy.

Husband of Hetty nee Barraclough - married in (Sept) 1913.

Father of one child.

Address: 1 Scarhouse Lane, Golcar.

Occupation: Cloth Finisher at George Cook, Dyers, Linthwaite.

Killed in action: 28th November 1917. Aged 29.

Buried at Bard Cottage Cemetery. V.C.25. Boesinghe, West Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Ben's wife received news from the Chaplain to say that he had been on duty with the Battery the previous night, and just before midnight a shell struck the shelter in which he was sleeping. They had his body to rest in a beautiful British Cemetery the following day.

Before his marriage he had lived at Garden Terrace, Linthwaite. He regularly attended Linthwaite Wesleyan Chapel and was a member of Linthwaite Cricket Club. For much of World War One the village of Boesinghe (now Bozinge) directly faced the German line across the Yser canal. Bard Cottage was a house set back a little from the Front line, close to a bridge called Bard's Causeway, and the cemetery was made nearby in a a

sheltered position under a high bank.

Burials were made between June 1915 and October 1918 and they reflect the presence of the 49th Division (West Riding), the 39th (Welsh) and other Divisions in the northern sector of the Ypres Salient as well as the advance of artillery to the area in the autumn of 1917.

There are now 1,639 casualties of the First World War buried here.