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6755 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Arthur Botham was born in Sudbury in 1882, one of ten children of George and Caroline Botham. The family lived at one time in Cross Street and Gaol Lane. His widowed mother later moved to 16 Curds Lane (now Weavers Lane).
Arthur enlisted in Bury St. Edmunds and served with the Suffolk Regiment as a regular soldier. In 1911 he was stationed with 1st Battalion at Mustapha Pasha Barracks in Alexandria, Egypt.
When war was declared Arthur was in Khartoum in the Sudan. He arrived in France on 16 January 1915 when the battalion landed at Le Havre. He saw action in Belgium including the Second Battle of Ypres where the first gas attacks were launched by the Germans on 22 April 1915. By 1916 he had transferred to the 7th Battalion. He would have served alongside other Sudbury men including Frederick Albon, Herbert Couch and William Edwards.
Arthur was reported as ‘missing’ in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press in August 1916. On 3 July 1916 his battalion took part in a frontal attack on Ovillers during the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme. The battalion assaulted in eight successive waves and the first four waves reached the enemy lines but owing to the darkness the following waves lost touch which enabled the enemy to surge forward and cut them off. After severe fighting the attack was halted. The battalion was almost destroyed as every company commander was killed and in total there were 470 men killed in action, many others wounded.
Arthur was killed in action 3 July 1916. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
A Cross of Remembrance was laid at the Thiepval Memorial in April 2006 and April 2009.
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