Anthony
Clarke Booth (21st April 1846 to 8th December 1899)
I had to drive down to head office in the Midlands for a
meeting. I arrived so early I visited a cemetery first to seek a grave. I sat
in the car having a bowl of cereal with fruit and warm milk tipped on it. The
cemetery was larger than expected and I was strolled around the well-mowed
grass I spotted a fox. It was used to touring its terrain interrupted and it didn’t
see me, bowl of cereal in hand.
That morning I
didn’t find the headstone. I had a wee against a tree and broke the zip on my
trousers. I was going to join a load of work colleagues in a room for a couple
of days and was hoping I wouldn’t have to walk round with Sidney Slug hanging
out. I drove to the factory and asked some lads on the shop floor for a big
piece of masking tape to seal up the willy window from the inside.
I returned to
the cemetery the following day and found the headstone under a blue sky.
Anthony was born in Nottinghamshire and joined the South Staffordshire Regiment
(little is known about him as it was so long ago.) Aged 32 he was a sergeant
fighting in the Zulu War. On 12th March 1879 he was by the Intombi River when Zulus attacked to kill. He rallied
together about fifty men on the south side of the river and allowed them to
retreat about three miles without deaths. His citation finished with the words,
"Had it not been for the coolness displayed by this N.C.O., not one man
would have escaped."
Queen Victoria
presented the Victoria Cross to Anthony on 26th June 1880 at Windsor
Castle, Berkshire.
He died aged
53 on William Street just nearby and his funeral was held in St. Mary's Roman
Catholic Church in Brierley Hill. However the church has no graveyard so he is
buried across the road in the Church of England's grounds.
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The fox which was
trotting around…
Later I returned to the cemetery to
look for the grave…
With wife and four sons…
Touching the “VC”…
Sadly this 17 year old boy is buried
here, too…
