Frank Dyas BOTTEN MM

Frank Dyas BOTTEN MM Update Details

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S29115

BOTTEN, Frank Dyas

Service Number:	7958
Enlisted:	27 July 1915, Adelaide, South Australia
Last Rank:	Corporal
Last Unit:	4th Field Ambulance
Born:	Little Adelaide, South Australia, 25 June 1891
Home Town:	Prospect (SA), Prospect, South Australia
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Bank Clerk
Died:	Natural causes, Tanunda, South Australia, 12 July 1965, aged 74 years
Cemetery:	Not yet discovered
Memorials:	Adelaide Savings Bank of South Australia Honour Roll WW1, North Adelaide Public School Roll of Honor, Prospect Roll of Honour A-G WWI Board

World War 1 Service

27 Jul 1915:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 7958, 1st Australian General Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia
11 Oct 1915:	Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 7958, 1st Australian General Hospital, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Nestor embarkation_ship_number: A71 public_note: ''
11 Oct 1915:	Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 7958, 1st Australian General Hospital, HMAT Nestor, Melbourne
11 Nov 1918:	Involvement AIF WW1, Corporal, 7958, 4th Field Ambulance
9 Sep 1919:	Discharged AIF WW1, Corporal, 7958, 4th Field Ambulance
Date unknown:	Wounded 7958, 4th Field Ambulance

Help us honour Frank Dyas Botten's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Robert Kearney

Born at Prospect, South Australia, Son of Robert BOTTEN and Anne Jane nee HILLMAN. Frank was working as a bank clerk when he enlisted in the AIF at the age of 24, on 10 August 1915. Selected as a special reinforcement for the Medical Corps, he embarked for overseas service from Melbourne two months later, on HMAT A71 Nestor, after completing basic medical training at Seymour, Victoria.

Arriving in Egypt Botten underwent further training before being assigned as a nursing orderly to 1 Australian General Hospital in March 1916. On 18 October he transferred to service on the Western Front and was posted to 4 Field Ambulance.

In May 1917 he received a superficial gunshot wound to the head near Albert, but was able to rejoin his unit six days later. While acting as a temporary corporal (confirmed in 1919) in the final months of the war, Botten was awarded the Military Medal for 'gallantry and devotion to duty' at Vaire-sur-Corbie on 6 August 1918, and at Cerisy on 8 August, when 'his utter disregard for danger and his untiring devotion to duty were the means of saving many lives.'.

Frank Botten returned to Australia in 1919. His brother, Lieutenant Robert Hillman Botten, had been killed in action near Grevillers on 2 March 1917 while serving with 27 Battalion, leaving a widow, Ethel. Frank never married. He shared a house with his widowed sister in law for the rest of his life. - AWM REL42738.002

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