BORN HULL 1896. ORIGINAL HULL PAL. SON OF FRED AND JANE ANN BOOTH, OF 132 CHILTERN STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). A SINGLE MAN AND BOILER SCALER BY TRADE. HE WAS EMPLOYED BY THE HULL STEAM FISHING AND ICE COMPANY. HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS ALL LIVED IN NEARBY STREETS.
HE ENLISTED IN THE “HULL PALS”, ON 28/09/1914. EMBARKED FOR EGYPT 16/12/1915. ARRIVED IN FRANCE, ON 06/03/1916. KILLED IN ACTION 13/11/1916, AGED 20. HIS TWO BROTHER IN LAWS, SERVED IN FRANCE AND A BROTHER, ON MINESWEEPERS.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 31/03/1917. *
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE DAVID BOOTH 12/668. Born in 1896, David was the fourth of five children and youngest son of Fred and Jane Booth of 132 Chiltern Street, Hessle Road, Hull. A Boiler Scaler by trade he was another who added a year on to their real age in order to qualify for immediate foreign service, such was his desire to get out to the war before it was all over. As it was they spent 1915 training only leaving Devonport bound for Alexandria, Egypt in late December. His real war began the following March when the Pals left Port Said bound for Marseilles then the train north to Armentieres and the trenches of the Western Front. David was killed in action at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme on 13th November 1916 and his body never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 20 years old.
