Edward Simpson Botterell the elder of the Botterell brothers, enlisted as a Private in September of 1914 with the 48th Highlanders of Canada. Edward quickly rose in the ranks, promoted to Captain in May 1916. At this time, younger brother Henry John Lawrence Botterell on his way to England to serve as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service.
Only one of the Botterell brothers returned to Canada following the Great War. When the surviving Botterell brother died at the age of 106, he was the last surviving pilot of both Great Wars.
Captain Edward Simpson Botterell, 15th (48th Highlanders) Battalion
First of the Botterell Brothers, Edward Simpson Botterell son of Henry H. and Annie Botterell, of Woodroffe, Ontario. Born 4 December 1882, attested 18 September 1914. Brother of Lieutenant Henry John Lawrence Botterell, a Canadian fighter pilot who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and then in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Great War.
Early Life
During two years spent in Toronto just prior to enlisting, Edward took active interest in all sorts of sports. He played one season with the Argonauts rowing club, and rugby as well. He holds several important championships, and highly spoken of by acquaintances as a magnificent, clean, all-round sport. While in Toronto in the employ of the Library Bureau, his brother Henry, then manager.
Private Edward Simpson Botterell stood 5′ 9″ tall, 188 pounds, with fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair, a Salesman. Attested on 7 September 1914 at Valcartier. Uncharacteristically, prior to sailing on 3 October 1914, Private Botterell awarded 5 days Field Punishment.
At 3 p.m., Saturday, 3 October 1914, anchor weighed and under black plumes of smoke from the fleet, the great convoy threaded out of Gaspé, drew into formation in the afternoon, and the shores of Gaspé dropped slowly astern and swallowed in the haze of distance. At last, the Canadians were on their way to a glorious destiny.
Salisbury Plain
From now on it was mud, mud, and more mud, all through these autumn days and all through the winter. The rains of Salisbury had started on the day the hero of Khandahar had visited them, and with only occasional breaks, they were to know gray days and drizzling nights all winter. Every letter home spoke of mud. How the hell can I drill ’em when they slip back two paces for one forward? Groused a sergeant.
On 16 December 1914, a welcome change when the men got out of tents, moved to Larkhill Camp, where they had the comfort of huts. Thought more than just an agreeable trade of abode; they hoped for a better chance to live out the rest of the stay on The Plain without colds and illness.
1915
In January 1915, the training became intensive field work. The month wore along with the entire Division drilled into frontline fitness. Mixed in with the training, however, were still too many fatigues, principally in roadwork and in improving conditions about the camp. At last, sufficient ammunition was obtainable and the men were now able to practice rifle shooting on the ranges.
The rifle is the soldier’s tool, but, owing to the lack of S.A.A. (small arm ammunition) they had done little more with it up to now than put it through the various monotonous movements on the parade ground to the command of N.C.O. and officer. Even now the supply of rifle and machinegun ammunition was sadly short.
During the last week of January, Sir George Perley and Lord Islington visited the Battalion, looked them over. pronounced them “a fine body of troops,” and stayed to luncheon in the Mess. They brought word that His Majesty the King would visit them again shortly. Immediately the steady flow of contradictory latrine rumour rolled high. France! It could mean nothing else.
To France
Shortly after midnight of 10-11 February 1915, Reveille thrilled through the hutlines. Sleeping men awoke with a jerk and final packing began. The early morning was clear and cold with stars sparkling in the black void above the Highlanders as they fell in and shivered and stood ready for war. Then, the first two companies marched out at 2.30 a.m., behind the Commanding Officer.
With him went Capt. John Thomas Duguid, Quartermaster; Capt. Robert Clifford Darling, Adjutant; Lt. Walter Whitaker Jago, Transport Officer, and most of his section. Major William Renwick Marshall followed at 4.30 with the other two companies. Finally, the 15th Battalion, 48th Highlanders, were swinging through the chill, black dawn on the road to battle.
They entrained at Amesbury, Lt.Col. John Alistar Currie at 5.30 and Major William Renwick Marshall at 7.15 a.m. No destination given. The men in the matchbox English coaches at which they had laughed so much, rolled steadily west. Then, they came to Bristol, of which Avonmouth is the seaport, and here they boarded the SS MOUNT TEMPLE. Finally, early in the morning of 12 February 1915, they were off.
To Belgium
At le Havre, the unloading of the transport, stores, and especially the horses, proved a labourious job. The horses rolled and skidded down the gangways but escaped injury. Lt. Walter Whitaker Jago, Capt. John Thomas Duguid, the transport and storemen, knew hard labour that evening. The loading finished, Col. John Alistar Currie sought the train crew who were enjoying coffee and a lunch.
When all at last ready, the engineer gave three fussy little toots and the 48th Highlanders, jammed into box cars—the infamous coaches marked 40 hommes, 8 chevaux—started with a jolt on the last leg to war. All through the night they shunted and jarred more or less in the general direction of the front. Then, all the next day they crawled on, to the tune of: Get your blasted foot out of me jawrr. It’s no my fut. It’s Jock’s.
In the course of time—23 hours—came at last to Hazebrouck. They had passed through Nantes, Sable, Le Mans, Laigle, Abbeville, Calais, La Hutte, where they had dinner, then St. Omer, and, at last, Hazebrouck, at 7 in the evening of February 17th. Lt. Russell, the Railway Transport Officer, who knew many of the 15th officers, said they could march five miles and billet in the country, or they could billet in town, in the hospital being constructed.
Col. John Alistar Currie, knowing how stiff the men were, chose the hospital. So their first night in “French” billets spent in comparative comfort, marred only by an accident, when C.Q.M.S. Charles Stuart Burness and a piper fell through a hole in the flooring. The C.Q.M.S. went to hospital, with minor injuries. The rest were snoring before midnight.
Caestre, 21 February 1915
The Battalion was astir early, but the fall in did not sound until 10.30 a.m., and after nearly four hours on the road, they reached billets in Caestre. It was a fairly stiff march and the ditches became the receptacles of much fancy equipment purchased before leaving England. They were in the war zone, in old French Flanders, 12 miles from Armentières, due east of them.
Five days spent in Caestre and on Sunday, 21 February 1916, the Battalion held its first divine service in France, in a green field just beyond the village. The Battalion formed in a hollow square, and, standing beside his drumhead pulpit, Canon Frederick George Scott led them through the British Army service. Then, a clear, windless day, and the clamour of guns drummed a low accompaniment to the General Confession. The earth shivered beneath them as they sang.
The feature of this tour watching the shelling of Messines church up on the hill by “Grandmother,” a Naval gun, run up to Neuve Eglise at night on the railway.
First Casualty, 27 February 1915
The first casualty. Late in the afternoon of the 96th, Pte. William Cyril Ford 19125 of No. 4 Company, wounded in the thigh by a sniper’s bullet. What a long list he was to head, a list that was to grow and grow as the slow months wore on. Ford had transferred to the Battalion from the 9th Battalion at Lark Hill. Finally, his days at the front over, Private Ford would demobilize in England, 9 October 1919.
Then, the next day, 28 February 1915, Private Frank Ferland 27587 of No. 2 Company, killed in action. Ferland, who heads the list of the Regiment’s dead, transferred to the 48th at Valcartier. He was a French Canadian from Quebec City, and had seen nine years service in the 13th Scottish Light Dragoons.
Sniped in the head at dawn, the first harsh lesson that the Hun eyes opposite were ever watchful and that a man could make one mistake but never two when the snipers were alert. Later, buried with his section standing beside his grave in a little graveyard, the Reverend Father Adolphe (Ludger) Sylvester reading the service.
Holding the Line, 6 March 1915
On Saturday night, 6 March 1915, the Battalion took over the Rue Petillon trenches beyond La Cordonnerie Farm and held a line for the first time as a unit for a period of three days. The 14th Battalion already relieved the Guards, and so Canadians relieved by the 48th Highlanders. Finally, they were all in place in the early evening and carried through their first relief very creditably under the circumstances.
They went in under a slow, cold March drizzle. No. 2 Company (Capt. George McKenzie Alexander), No. 3 Company (Capt. George Hagarty McLaren), and No. 4 Company (Major James Ewart Kerr Osborne), held the front line, while No. 1 Company, under Capt. Archibald Robert MacGregor, took over the support positions—redoubts behind the frontline and supplied the ration parties for the Battalion.
The positions drawn by lot. Lt.-Col. John Alistar Currie instructed that there was to be no bravado, but that, if possible, the Battalion was to dominate the sniping.
Captain R.C. Darling, 23 March 1915
War luck is fickle and it could not last. On the afternoon of 23 March 1915, Capt. Robert Clifford Darling, the Adjutant, wounded in the shoulder while cutting across the open behind the frontline, with part of his path exposed. The day was quiet but a sniper saw him.
Capt. Robert Clifford Darling had taken a message to Capt. Frank Mortimer Perry. on the left of the Battalions front, and was returning to Battalion H.Q. To the regret of the entire Regiment, Capt. Robert Clifford Darling died of his wound in England.
Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 10 March 1916
Though they did not know it, the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, long planned, now to be staged just south of their trench positions of Rue Petillon. A Brigade frontage was between the 14th Battalion and the attack flank. Then, at midnight orders received that the 15th Battalion were to take up a position in the Rue du Bois, in close support for the attack. They fell in in the cold. black dawn at 5 a.m., 10th March, and were in positions shortly after 6 o’clock. There they heard the thunder of the first assault.
The British barrage opened at 7.30 a.m. and the artillery fire was heavy and incessant throughout the day. Shortly after 8.30, the dull roar of rapidfire ran for miles. The Battalion rested easy, not under serious fire, and wondered how the battle had gone. Only the lucky saw khaki figures advancing here and there in the battle fog.
That evening they moved back to billets at Rue du Quesne, spent the night there, and returned to their support position before dawn of the 11th, for two hours, when the battle opened with renewed frenzy just to their right. Then it petered out. That the Battalion expected to get into it is evident in the diary, which says: We have broken the German line and expect to advance soon. The impression seemed to be confirmed when instructions on the 12th, to the Canadian Division, said they must hold themselves in readiness to cooperate.
Second Battle of Ypres
Shortly before midnight, 22 April 1915, occurred the historic charge of the 10th and 16th Battalions. The impetuous Canadians reached Kitchener Wood under fierce machinegun and rifle fire, paused, then charged the wood and recaptured four British guns, which they found had been destroyed by their captors.
Artillery fire forced the remnants of the two battalions to fall back later, but their gallant effort doubtless stayed the oncoming Hun to a considerable degree. However, this was well to the left of the Highland Salient and of St. Julien and the Battalion knew little, if anything, of the valiant charge until many hours later.
Shellfire was incessant and heavier than any man of the Battalion had ever experienced or thought to experience. Men marveled afterwards upon how that quaking frontline parapet stood up under the fury of a heavy barrage that had lasted from 5 o’clock in the afternoon until daybreak next morning. All along the line from the Ypres Canal, past St. Julien. and to the frontline there were gaps, gaps, and more gaps. The frontline outflanked on the left.
Major William Renwick Marshall and his inadequate force faced that broken flank, whence the heavy assault could be expected. Behind him, with 7th Battalion detachments between, Capt. George McKenzie Alexander and No. 2 Company noting unmistakable signs of a strong thrust being imminent out of the woods in front of them. They had practically no left flank and their right was only thinly plugged.
23 April 1915
At 3 o’clock on the afternoon of 23 April 1915, the bombardment suddenly ceased, and, as the heavy sustained roar of rapid fire broke from the German frontline, the weary defenders in the Highland frontline manned their posts, expecting an assault in force to follow. Nothing, however, developed.
During the day Lt.Col. John Alistar Currie spent most of his time with No. 2 Company at St. Julien. The 1st Brigade were digging in on the left of St. Julien, in some strength, but they were well to the left. Additional men of the 14th Battalion had come up to fill in the gap below the town and at noon Capt. William Hew Clark-Kennedy of the 13th Battalion had taken the precarious passage from the frontline to Brigade H.Q.
24 April 1915
The light of the momentous dawn of April 24th began to thin the covering darkness all too soon. It was the last red dawn that many of the holders of that defiant line were ever to see. Suddenly, two Germans appeared on top of their trench directly across from Capt. George Hagarty McLaren’s Company.
They wore grotesque helmets, something after the manner of a diver’s headgear. Each had a hose in his hand from which began to flow the same heavy green-tinged vapour that had annihilated the French line on the left. Those who had not yet heard of the chlorine, thought of liquid fire.
Gallant Archibald Robert MacGregor, Geoffrey Barron Taylor, Argonaut stroke and University of Toronto footballer, valiant Albert Murdoch Daniels and well loved Gavin Ince Langmuir, and their stricken men, fought hopelessly to keep the green, choking poison out of their throats and to stem the swarming horde of advancing Germans following in open formation behind the wall of gas.
The three officers of No. 1 Company fell, but the actual manner of their death has never been known and never will be known, and no word has ever again been heard of Capt. Albert Murdoch Daniels of No. 3 Company.
First Wound Stripe
At Ypres, Private Edward Simpson Botterell gassed on 24 April 1915. He remained at duty, though he was declared missing 24-29 April. When found, Private Edward Simpson Botterell was treated in hospital for three weeks.
Rise in Ranks
Private Edward Simpson Botterell to be Corporal, 5 June 1915. Less than two weeks later, Corporal Edward Simpson Botterell to be Sergeant 17 July 1915. Sergeant Edward Simpson Botterell to Cadet School, 8 November 1915. On Command Grenade School, 11 November 1915. Sergeant Edward Simpson Botterell to be Temporary Lieutenant 12 December 1915. The eldest of the Botterell Brothers an officer before his younger brother enlisted.
Stricture
9 December 1915, Sergeant Edward Simpson Botterell admitted, Queen Alexandria Military Hospital, Millbank, Stricture Urethra and gleet. Unfit for service for one month, 19 January 1916. Readmitted 2 February 1916, discharged 6 February 1916. Fit for service, 19 February 1916. Lieutenant Edward Simpson Botterell T.o.S. 15th Battalion on 24 February 1916.
Second Wound Stripe
Lieutenant Edward Simpson Botterell to be Temporary Captain, in the Field, 18 May 1916. On 31 May 1916, the Battalion started on its way in again. The first stop was Berthonval Farm. One day spent here, when a second move made, this time to the Elbe and Rhine Shelters, near Neuville St. Vaast. Then in the evening they swung over to the plank road and headed up the Ridge, taking up a position in Brigade support just beyond the railway. Three men hit at the culvert, shelled steadily as they passed through. Captain Edward Simpson Botterell reported wounded on duty 3 June 1916.
Three days spent here with everyone under cover during the day because of the activity of aircraft. Twenty bombs dropped on the night of the 2nd in the Battalion’s area, but they, might have been fireworks for all the harm occasioned, and ducking them was more amusing than the tedious wiring parties of the next night.
Killed-in-Action
The move in during the night of June 26th was long, for the Mont St. Eloi hill was far from the frontline, now out of sight beyond the Ridge. The Battalion relieved the 10th Canadian Battalion in the Méricourt sector and the companies for the tour disposed: No. 3 Company under Capt. Harry Price, right front; No. 2 Company under Capt. Alan Turnbull, left front; No. 1 Company under Major John Pollards Girvan and No. 4 Company under Capt. Dugal Coryear Sheppard in support.
Another long frontage, 2,100 yards this time, and some lonely soul had named all communication and support trenches after actresses. Those received letters from a Peggie, Doris, Gertie, Billie, or a Gaby, had little peace for the tour as the names easily twisted into rude and embarrassing jests.
Private Sam Norman 437277, Private William Turner 437946 and Captain Edward Simpson Botterell, of the 48th Highlanders Killed-in-Action on 26 June 1916. While on his rounds of duty, in the front line trenches, this officer shot through the chest and killed by a bullet from the rifle of an enemy sniper. At the time of his death, requested to assume the Captaincy of his company. Later, confirmed in rank of Captain, retro-active 26 June 1916.
The Grave of Captain Edward Simpson Botterell
Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery on 24 June 1916 in a full military funeral with all battalions of the Canadian Mounted Rifles represented. As General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the CEF’s 3rd Division, Mercer the highest ranking CEF officer Killed-in-Action during the Great War.
Though he died 3 June 1915, his body only recently found – this explains the peculiar span of dates of death between these two graves. Mercer’s partially decomposed body recovered 16 June 1916. Some sources attribute his death to friendly fire. However, the burial party recovering his body noted his corpse likely disturbed by shellfire.
The day after Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer‘s funeral, Captain Edward Simpson Botterell buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Plot VI, Row A, Grave 39.
On 24 April 2010, his nephew, Edward Botterell, attended the dedication of the 15th Battalion memorial on Gravenstafel Ridge and delivered the Exhortation.
Lieutenant Henry John Lawrence Botterell, R.N.A.S.
Lieutenant Henry John Lawrence Botterell, a Canadian fighter pilot who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and then in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Great War. When he died at the age of 106, Veterans’ Affairs Canada believed he had been the last surviving pilot in the world to have seen action in the Great War.
Henry John Lawrence Botterell (1896-2003), while not qualifying as an air ace – he had one accredited ‘kill’ whereas he required five to gain official recognition – gained celebrity in his final years as the sole surviving Great War fighter pilot of any nation.
Lieutenant Henry John Lawrence Botterell brother of Captain Edward Simpson Botterell, 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders of Canada).
Early Life
Son of Henry H. and Annie Botterell, of Woodroffe, Ontario. Brother of Edward Simpson Botterell. His father, a civil servant, died of pneumonia when Botterell was still a young boy. He attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute before beginning a career in banking. Prior to his war service, Botterell worked as a clerk at the Bank of North America (now the Bank of Montreal).
Botterell was born on 7 November 1896 in Ottawa. In 1916, successfully applied to be a civilian flying trainee, and consequently despatched to England for relevant training. At around this time his older brother killed in action while serving with the 15th Battalion (48th Highlanders) in France.
No. 8 Naval Squadron, RNAS
On 16 May 1917, then aged 20, Botterell (referred to as “Nap” on account of his apparent likeness to Napoleon) enlisted with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in the capacity of Probationary Flight Officer. His entry facilitated by his sister Edith, who worked in the office of Admiral Charles Kingsmill. He received his wings on 15 August 1917, and awarded Royal Aero Club certificate number 5093.
Botterell’s immediate superior was also a Canadian, flying ace Flight Commander James Butler White DFC. The squadron commanded by another ace, Squadron Commander Christopher Draper, later known as the “Mad Major” for his habit of flying under bridges. His early flight experiences – with No. 8 Naval Squadron – hardly encouraging: on only his second flight with the RNAS on 18 September 1917 he crash-landed his Sopwith Pup at Dunkirk shortly after take-off, sustaining multiple injuries, head injuries, a fractured leg and broken teeth. A six month spell of recuperation in hospital followed by a medical discharge from the RNAS.
Return to No. 208 Squadron, RNAS
En-route to Canada for repatriation Botterell ran into a number of his former No. 8 Naval Squadron colleagues in London in the spring of 1918 who in turn arranged for Botterell sent to Manston in Kent in order to re-qualify as a pilot. 10 hours of refresher training later Botterell approved to start flying once more and promptly despatched to Serny on the Western Front where he rejoined No. 8 Naval Squadron, renamed in his absence 208 Squadron (attached to the RAF). He served with them from May 11 to November 27, 1918, flying a variety of missions in different aircraft. He flew patrols and fought over Serny, Tramecourt, Arras, Foucaucourt and Estrées. In 60 days between June and August 1918, he flew 91 sorties.
While serving in France at this time, over Serny, Tramecourt, Arras, Foucaucourt and Estrées, in the immediate aftermath of great German spring advance, Botterell flew a variety of missions in different aircraft, including patrols and artillery spotting, flying a frenetic 91 sorties in just 60 days in his Sopwith Camel.
Botterell’s sole air victory saw him bring down a German observation balloon – well-defended by anti-aircraft guns – on 29 August near Arras. Putting his Sopwith Camel into a dive, he fired 400 machine-gun rounds at the balloon, setting it aflame. The German observer parachuted to safety.
Armistice
After the armistice (by then a Flight Lieutenant), and following a further year with the RAF, Botterell returned to Canada – in the process arranging to smuggle, in three separate parts, the 9ft propeller of his Snipe aircraft. Botterell returned to his work at the Bank of Montreal as Assistant Chief Accountant, initially in Quebec and then in Montreal, eventually retiring in 1970. He married in 1929, to Maud Goater, who died in 1983; they had two children.
Second World War
With the advent of the Second World War Botterell served once more, this time in command of an air cadet squadron at Lachine in Quebec.
Retirement
His interests included the violin, singing (he was a tenor), lone sailing, skiing, swimming and cycling. In 1999 Botterell, then aged 102, was guest of honour at a dinner to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The year previous, he had celebrated his 102nd birthday at a hotel in Lille. Then, he and 16 other Canadian veterans marked the 80th anniversary of the war’s end. In 2001, he received a visit from members of the present day 208 Squadron (based in Anglesey).
Henry John Lawrence Botterell, The Botterell Brothers, died on 3 January 2003, aged 106.
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