Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born on 22nd July 1892 to William Bilton, a manager for a local wine merchant, and his wife of three years, Annie (nee Brown), Howard was educated at Dame Allan’s School in Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne, and lived in Cheltenham Terrace, Heaton with his parents and two younger siblings William Norman and Annie May. By 1911 he was working as a bank clerk and living with his parents and sister Annie in West Avenue, Benton.
On 15th September 1912 Howard arrived in Canada on the SS Mongolian, making for British Columbia and a life as a farmer. Three years later he had been working as a stenographer, living in Sicamouse, BC and was a volunteer with the Royal Canadian Regiment, a local militia group.
He enlisted with the 48th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in Victoria, BC on 23rd April 1915 and became Private 431020 with “D” Company. At the beginning of July the Battalion sailed aboard the SS Grampian from Montreal to Plymouth and a posting to West Sandling Camp, Kent, where Private Bilton was assigned as a batman.
In January 1916 the 48th Battalion was designated as 3rd Pioneer Battalion, part of the 3rd Canadian Division. Pioneer Battalions worked in conjunction with the Engineers in the forward area, the work consisting of “consolidating positions captured by the infantry, tunnelling, mining, wiring, railroad work, deep dugout work and laying out, building and keeping trenches in repair.”
The 3rd were posted to France in mid March, sailing from Folkestone to Boulogne, and two months later Private Bilton was with a work party doing road clearance near Ypres when he was hit by shrapnel in his abdomen and right thigh. He was evacuated to 17th Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Siding where he died from his wounds a day later at 8.45am on 13th May 1916.
Howard Bilton is remembered in Longbenton on L25.02 and in Fenham on F31.01
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Bilton
