Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Mr. J.R. and Mrs S.E. Booth of Wooroolin, Kingaroy Line, QLD; brother of Norman Henry Booth of Thornlands, QLD

18 April 1916 - to hospital suffering from Nephritis

23 May 1916 - transferred to England - Nephritis

31 August 1916 - left England on board H.T. Marana for Australia for Discharged as Medically unfit (Nephritis)

Also served 6 years in the Merchant Service with the rank of Able Seaman Stoker

He was a good rider and could drive four in hand and had a slight knowledge of French

His last employer was T. Sloane the Head of Gang 9, Telegraph Gang, Maryborough

#205 BOOTH Reginald Nathaniel
 
Reg Booth was born at Larbet NSW on 18th January 1882. There is very little information available publicly regarding his early life but it appears that Reg had a varied career after leaving school. He reported on his enlistment papers that he had spent six years in the merchant navy as a stoker and engine room hand. He also stated that he had experience of plumbing, carpentry and general bush work; was a good rider and driver of horse teams up to four in hand. Remarkably he also had a knowledge of some French.
 
Reg presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 26th March 1915. He stated his occupation as carpenter from Gooroolba and named his mother of Wooroolin as next of kin. Reg was at that time a reservist in the Royal Australian Navy but due to the shortage of sea berths available, he was working on a telegraph gang on the rail line around Gooroolba. The excess numbers of naval ratings spurred the Australian Government to form a bridging team of suitably qualified reservists from the naval ranks and Reg’s past experience held him in good stead for such a position.
 
Reg transferred to Melbourne when he was re-attested and sworn in to the 1st RAN Bridging Train. He was designated as an Able Bodied Driver. The bridging train trained in the Domain in Melbourne, constructing pontoon bridges, wharves and jetties. The plan was to attach the unit to the Royal Naval Division on Gallipoli as an engineering team. The members of the team were all Navy men but it was decided that since they would be deployed on land, they should wear AIF Khaki; but with the proviso that shoulder and cap badges would depict an anchor. Headwear was usually a felt hat but without a turned up side.
 
The Bridging Train, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Bracegirdle (who had been second in command of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to New Guinea at the outbreak of the war), boarded the Port Macquarie at Port Melbourne bound for Egypt. Due to an outbreak of equine fever, all of the train’s horses had to be off loaded in Columbo and the train arrived at Suez without transport. Once this situation was rectified, the Port Macquarie continued on to the island of Imbos, within sight of the Anzac Beachhead to prepare to support the British landing at Suvla Bay on 7th August 1915.
 
The plan to land several brigades of British and Indian Troops at the lightly defended beach of Suvla Bay, just north of the Anzac positions on the Gallipoli Peninsula was an attempt to break the stalemate that had developed. Diversions were conducted at Lone Pine and the Nek in the ANZAC lines, at the cost of many Australian lives, to allow the landings at Suvla to proceed virtually unopposed. The commander in charge at Suvla was Lieutenant General Stopford. He had never commanded men in action but he was appointed due to seniority. Once his men were ashore, Stopford dithered for several days allowing the Turks to rush reinforcements to the area and negate the advantage that had been created. After 15 days of his command in which nothing happened, Stopford was relieved but by that stage the situation could not be rescued.
 
During this period at Suvla, the Bridging Team constructed groins, jetties and landing places to assist with the movement ashore of men and material. The winter weather brought lashing rain and storms followed by snow. When the decision was made to abandon the Gallipoli campaign altogether, members of the bridging train were the last Australians to leave the peninsula. The last Australians at Anzac had departed several hours previously.
 
The members of the bridging train were evacuated to Mudros on the Island of Lemnos. Reg spent some time in hospital there due a bout of influenza. While the men were still on Mudros awaiting transfer to Egypt there was a serious incident. The men had not been paid for some time and no doubt some of the older men in the ranks who had experience of labour matters in their earlier lives deemed this a reason to withhold labour, in other words a strike; or in naval terms a mutiny! It was only due to some intervention by senior naval officers that the situation was defused. Nevertheless, this incident was not forgotten and by the time that the Bridging Train arrived back in Egypt on 20th January 1916, many of the ratings were thoroughly fed up.
 
January 1916 in Egypt was a time of general upheaval amongst the AIF as well. The withdrawal of the two divisions from ANZAC provided a core of experienced officers and lower ranks who would form the core of newly constituted battalions, each with a mix of experienced and newly recruited manpower. This doubling of the force from two to four divisions also precipitated a realignment of priorities. The new infantry divisions were to be sent to the Western Front while the Light Horse remained in Egypt.
 
In addition to the expanded infantry, there was a similar expansion in associated support forces such as artillery and engineers. The urgent need for the Navy to provide engineering expertise had passed. The Naval Bridging Train provided a ready force of experienced military engineers and most of the ratings transferred to the army. Reg was one of these transferees. He was taken on strength by the 5th Field Company Engineers on 10th March 1916 as a driver of general service wagons pulled by mule teams.
 
On 23rd March, the engineers arrived in Marseilles and proceeded to assembly areas in the rear areas of the western front. Three weeks after arriving in France, Reg reported sick to a Field Ambulance Unit. On 18thApril he was admitted to the 14th Stationary Hospital at Wimereux where he was diagnosed as suffering from nephritis. Nephritis was one of a series of diseases which were endemic during the first world war. It was prevalent in men who spent time in the trenches and was sometimes called trench nephritis. At the time there was very little known of the causes and there was no known cure.
 
On 23rd May, Reg was loaded onto a hospital ship for the short crossing of the English Channel after which he was transferred to the 1st Australian General Hospital at Harefield outside London. In early August Reg transferred to the Weymouth Depot where he appeared before a medical board. The board classified him as unfit for overseas service and by the end of the month, Reg was returned to Australia where he was discharged as permanently unfit on 15th November 1916.
 
Reg was quite sick and it is likely that he went home to his mother’s house at Wooroolin. He applied for repatriation benefits as he was unable to work but finally succumbed to his illness on 1st April 1918. Reg was buried in the protestant section of the Taabinga Cemetery at Kingaroy. In 1967, Reg’s brother applied for the Gallipoli Medallion on behalf of Reg.