Boswell, P

PHILLIP BOSWELL

Remembered with honour Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension: Plot IV, Row B, Grave 12.

He originally attested 17 March 1892 in Hertford in the 4th Bedfordshire Militia: a farm labourer aged 17, 5’2½” tall, C of E; he left 28 September 1892 when he attested at Bedford for Short Service (7 years with the Colours, 5 years in the Reserves), Private 41885 Bedfordshire Regiment: a labourer aged 18, 5’3½” tall, C of E, his next-of-kin his mother of Wareside, Herts.  He served at Home 28 September 1892 to 15 December 1899, during which time he was appointed Drummer 9 March 1894, and extended his service to complete 12 years with the Colours 27 April 1894.  He served in South Africa 16 December 1899 to 28 January 1903, during which time he reverted to Private 9 December 1902.  Home again from 39 January 1903, re-engaged 10 September 1904 for a further 4 years service, and was discharged 27 September 1908 on termination of his engagement.

He was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914 Star medals, his qualifying date being 11 November 1914, and died at no. 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station.  Unfortunately, Phillip’s Service Record appears to be one that did not survive the World War Two bombing; and does not appear to have an entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919.

Son of Mercy/Mersey (nee WARREN) and the late John BOSWELL; husband of Elizabeth Emily GALE (formerly BOSWELL, nee MARKWELL) of Bishop’s Stortford, Herts.

His parents married 3 February 1866 at St Nicholas’, Great Hormead, Herts.  John died 1887 in the Ware, Herts, district aged 62, and was buried 15 January at Wareside; Mercy died 1936 in the Ware district aged 90.

Phillip was born 1 June 1875 in Wareside, and baptised 4 July 1875 at St Margaret’s, Stanstead Abbots, Essex.  He attended first Christ Church Infants’ School, Ware; then Wareside C of E School from 24 May 1880 to 9 April 1886.  He married 30 July 1904 at Holy Trinity, Bishop’s Stortford.  Elizabeth remarried 1920 in the Bishop’s Stortford district to William Albert George GALE, who died 28 April 1930 in Bishop’s Stortford aged 57; Elizabeth died 1946 in the Bishop’s Stortford district aged 72.

On the 1881 Census, at school aged 5 he lived in Ware, with his parents and five siblings.  On the 1891 Census, a labourer aged 15, he still lived in Ware, with his widowed mother and six siblings.  On the 1901 Census, he is serving in South Africa.  On the 1911 Census, a brewer’s bottle washer aged 35, he lived in Bishop’s Stortford, with his wife and no children.