Pioneer Joseph Boustead

12757-  7th Battalion Border Regiment, 43003 - 16th Battalion Manchester Regiment, 247045 & MP 22541-313th RCC Royal Engineers

Born 1891, Glencoyne. Died Sept 1952 Buckrose Yorkshire Aged 61

Son of Frank (Francis) and Margaret (nee Jackson) Boustead of Glencoyne, Seldom Seen and Rampsbeck Cottage Ullswater

Brother of Frank Boustead

Joseph Boustead was born in 1891 and baptised on the 31st May of that year at St Patricks church Patterdale. His father, Frank was a miner at Greenside mines and lived with his wife Margaret (nee Jackson) at Glencoin (or Glencoyne) cottages, where Margaret had grown up. Frank had been born in Plumpton in 1863. He’d moved to Glenridding to work at the mine and married Margaret in May 1887. There first son John was born shortly afterwards and as well as Frank they also had another son Frank, born in 1893. In June 1896 Margaret gave birth to twins, Tom & Lena, but sadly both died within a few weeks. By 1901 the family had moved to Seldom Seen, and Margaret gave birth to another son, William. Sadly he too died after just 19 days. In March 1904, aged just 39, Margaret herself died. A year later Frank married again, to Isabella Pearson from Penrith.  

Frank and Isabella continued to live at Seldom Seen and by 1911 Frank had left the mines and was working as a roadman for the County Council. His eldest sons John and Joseph were also working, John as a “labourer with a traction engine” and 19 year old Joseph as a roadman for the council like his father. Isabella had also had three children with Frank, Winifred (in 1906), Annie (1910) and son Allen (1912).

When war broke out Joseph was one of the first to enlist - signed on in Penrith on the 1st September 1914 at the age of 23. He joined the Border Regiment and was posted to the 7th Battalion. The battalion came under the orders of 51st Brigade in 17th (Northern) Division. Their training took place at Andover and then Bovington in January 1915. They then moved to Winchester in June 1915, before embarking for France, with Joseph on the 14th July 1915. They landed at Boulogne 15 July 1915.

The next day they travelled to Reninghelst via St Omer, Wallon Kappel and Eecke, to join II Corps Reserve for instruction in Trench Warfare, which was done by Companies, under the guidance of more experienced battalions. They were in the infamous Ypres Salient. The battalion were lent to the 3rd Division and went in line at Kruistraat, suffering their first casualties on the 13th September 1915. After supporting an unsuccessful attack on the Germans near Hooge at the end of September 1915 the battalion spent the rest of 1915 in and out of the line around the Hooge/Sanctuary Wood area of the Ypres salient.

In February 1916 after a month of rest and reinforcing the battalion moved to Poperinghe, and were involved in attempts to attack the Germans in this sector. It is possible that it was during this action that Joseph suffered a shrapnel wound to his left arm on the 2nd March 1916. By the 7th March he was in his way back to England aboard the SS St David.  Once home he was admitted to hospital and remained there until his injury had healed. For more information on the 7th Border Regiment in the first war please see this site.

He was discharged on the 5th May 1916 and granted 9 days “furlough” (home leave) which he spent in the Dale, visiting his father and family, who had by this time moved to Rampsbeck Cottage by Ullswater. After his leave Joseph was briefly with the 10th (reserve) battalion before returning once more to France on the 8th July 1916. At this point he transferred to the 16th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. This was one of the first “Pals” battalions to have been raised at the start of the war. They had been heavily involved in the infamous Battle of the Somme in July 1916 and is was possible that Joseph was transferred in as part of the efforts to bring the Battalion back up to strength.

On September 3rd the battalion moved into the trenches at waterlogged trenches of Festubert, where they remained for the next few weeks before moving to Fleselles. They remained in and out of action in the trenches throughout the rest of 1916 and into 1917 around places including Fricourt, Bailleulval and Bellecourt. For more on the Manchesters at war please see the Manchesters Website.

On the 28th May 1917 Joseph changed regiments for the third and final time, joining the 313th Road Construction Company (RCC) of the Royal Engineers, with the rank of Pioneer (the equivalent of a private). This was obviously, after three long years in the Army, an attempt to finally make sue of Joseph’s skills from before the war. We do not know many details of his time with the RCC, but do know that he was granted leave to the UK from the 16th to 26th October 1917, returning once again to Ullswater. In April 1918 he was made an action Lance Corporal but at the end of May 1918  we was returned to the rank of Pioneer, because as record in his service record  he as “surplus to establishment”.

Joseph had 14 days leave in October 1918 just before the Armistice was signed and then returned to France until his demobilisation on the 26th February 1919 at which point he returned to his father’s house at Rampsbeck Cottage by Ullswater. So far that is all we know about Joseph’s life until his death, aged 61, in Buckrose Yorkshire in September 1952.

In terms of the rest of his family, his father Frank died in Penrith in March 1931 at the age of 69. So far we have been able to find no trace of Joseph’s elder brother John after the 1911 Census record. His younger brother Frank’s story is told in more detail below. In terms of his half-brothers and sisters and step mother, we know that Isabella died in 1952. His half-sister Winifred married Anderson Duff, and had a son David. She died in Silloth in October 1967. Joseph’s youngest half-brother Allen married Anne and when he died in December 1965 at the age of 53 he was running the Punch Bowl Hotel in North Stainmore Kirkby Stephen. So far we have not found any information on what happened to Joseph’s other half-sister Annie.

If you can add anything to the story of Joseph or his family please contact us.

The section of Joseph’s Service Record dealing with his time in the Manchester’s and his transfer to the RE

The section of Joseph’s Medal Card showing his four service numbers

Private Frank Boustead

13076 - 9th Battalion Border Regiment

Born 15th Sept 1893, Glencoyne. Died 1970 Carlisle Aged 85

Son of Frank (Francis) and Margaret (nee Jackson) Boustead of Glencoyne, Seldom Seen and Rampsbeck Cottage Ullswater

Husband of Sarah Dobinson

Brother of Joseph Boustead

Frank Boustead was born on the 15th September 1893, the third son of Frank and Margaret Boustead from Glencoyne in Glenridding. The story of his family is told in more detail in the biography of his elder brother Joseph Boustead, above. After attending Patterdale School Frank left home and was by 1911 living in Pooley Bridge, where he is described on the 1911 census as working as a “servant - horseman”.

We have not been able to find details of Frank’s war service but we do have his medal index card (see below) and from this we know that he ended up in the 9th Battalion of the Border Regiment. It is probable he joined up at the start of the war alongside his brother Joseph. The 9th Battalion of the Border Regiment was the “Pioneer Battalion”, and were used in repairing roads, bridges trenches and strong points on the battlefront and behind the lines. We know from his medals that Frank served in France in 1915 and it is likely that he was there as part of the 9th Battalion which arrived in France on the 4th September. We know about their activities in the war from the Battalion Diary of Colonel Wylly (see here for more details).

After two months working in France the 9th battalion was dispatched to Salonika in Greece, via Alexandria in Egypt. Allied commanders had decided to deploy  French and British troops to support the Greek Army in their fight against the Bulgarians. The conditions were harsh, with the severe cold and blizzard conditions in winter making life particularly hard on the troops. However, as the official history states:

“the men remained good spirited and in good health. There never seemed to be shortage of tobacco, as smoking was a favourite pastime amongst many of the men, but the basic necessity of bread proved a little different and was somewhat harder to come by”

The battalion remained in Salonika for the duration of the war as the allies launched their final assault on the Bulgarians in 1918 with a view to ending the war in the Balkans.

We do not know exactly when Frank was demobbed but he must have returned to live in the Penrith area as it was here in 1924 that he married Sarah Dobinson. So far we have not been able to find out any more details of Frank’s life until his death in Carlisle at the age of 85 in 1970.

Frank is remembered alongside his brother Joseph on the Glenridding Village Hall Roll of Honour. If you can add anything to the story of Frank or his family please contact us.