Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stanley Field BOOTHEY was born at Mount Gambier on 11 March 1893. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 21 January 1907 by his father, Jesse T. Boothey, a carpenter, of Bertha Street, Mount Gambier. He left school on 25 November 1907.

He enlisted at Mount Gambier on 20 March 1916 (24, architect, married, Presbyterian) naming his wife, Mrs Rose Eileen Grace Boothey, c/o Mrs Williams, Hyde Park, South Australia, as his next of kin. He embarked from Adelaide on the ‘Suevic’ on 31 May 1916, disembarked at Devonport in England on 11 November and was sent overseas to France 13 April 1917, where he joined the 11th Field Company Engineers on 26 April 1917. He was detached to 2nd Army Cookery School on 26 September 1917 but re-joined his unit on 11 October, was transferred to 11th Field Ambulance on 11 November 1918 and promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on 15 November 1918. He left Devonport, England, on the ‘Rio Pardo’ for return to Australia on 27 May 1919, disembarked at Adelaide 17 July, and returned to Mount Gambier by train on Monday 11 August 1919, receiving an official welcome from the Mayor, G.E. Truman and others.312 He was discharged on 1 September.

Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone

In 1892, parents Jesse Boothey and Sarah McMullin (27 and 25 years old, respectively) birthed their oldest son of six children, Stanley Field Boothey in Mount Gambier, South Australia. He worked a six-year internship with J.T. Boothey, believed to be his father until becoming an architect. On the 20th of May 1916 he married Rose Eileen Grace Delanty, the same day he enlisted in Prospect, South Australia. Boothey was a Sapper in the 11th Field Company Engineers and committed to the ‘period of war and four months after’.  

On the 31st of May 1916 he embarked on the HMAT Suevic A29 from Adelaide to Plymouth, a port city in Devon, England. Having faced a long journey full of sickness and even death for some, the men arrived on the 21st of July 1916. Just days after their disembarkation the company began training in East Coast defenses, R.E. and pontooning at camps in Brightlingsea, Essex.  

On the 9th of November 1916 Stanley Field Boothey fell ill with pleurisy, a condition where the thin layers of tissue that separate the lungs from the chest become inflamed. He was transported to Fargo Military Hospital for treatment until being cleared for release on the 14th of November 1916.  

He returned to his unit who were in Armentières, Hauts-de-France, France caring for the Lys River bridges and working on trench improvement. On March 14th, 1917, the company moved to work in the Le Touquet sector of France in preparation for their first large scale defensive, the battle of Messines. After working to improve communication through the fields for the advance of soldiers, the unit left for La Boudrelle on the 12th of June 1917. While the rest of the 11th Field Company Engineers returned to Neuve Eglise for the Windmill Battle of July 31st, Stanley Field Boothey attended the 2nd Army Cookery School until the 11th of October 1917.  

When he returned to his company, they had gone into the Corps Reserve after fighting in Third Ypres. In March of 1918, the unit rested in the obscure village of Bainghem-le-Comte until the beginning of the German offensive where they were forced to move.  
On the 27th of March 1918 the 11th Field Company arrived at Amiens, Picardy, France to prevent the enemy advancing a high ridge that ran between two rivers and to the town of Corbie.  
On August 8th, 1918, the unit worked on dugouts and medical posts for the allied army in Somme, France. From the 29th of September 1918 to the 2nd of November 1918 the company worked on the Hindenburg line.  

Stanley Field Boothey returned to Australia on the Rio-Pardo, the 27th of May 1919. Little is known of his life after war until his death at 58 years old in his hometown of Mount Gambier on the 14th of May 1950. He received a Victory Medal, British War Medal and Star Medal. Boothey was remembered by his wife, his mother and his younger siblings Albert Alexander Boothey - who also fought in the war, Roy John Boothey, Thomas Alfred Boothey, William George Gambier Boothey and Doris Lilian Boothey.