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Gotts Surname Family History

The brothers are among 95 names recorded on the memorial inside St Mary’s, the parish church of Southtown. They are also among the 1,472 names commemorated on the memorial in St George’s Park, Great Yarmouth.

Thanks to Ian Gotts of Kings Lynn for the details and the ‘In Memoriam’ cards. Both these men were brothers of his grandfather.

Corporal 43446 Maxwell William GOTTS

2nd Bn., Northamptonshire Regiment

Born Hemsby, 17th June, 1897

Maxwell William enlisted at Norwich in 1914 and was initially engaged on coastal defence duties with the 6th Cyclists Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. At some point (in 1915 or July 1916), he was transferred to the 2nd Northants infantry battalion and sent to the Western Front. Twenty years old, while serving under 8th Division, he was killed in action on Monday, 25th March, 1918, and was buried at Pargny British Cemetery on the Somme, a cemetery made after the Armistice by concentrations from the surrounding battlefields. The majority of the burials are those of officers and men whose resistance at the Somme crossings on the 24th March, 1918, materially helped to delay the German advance. Maxwell’s grave is marked with a headstone inscribed: ‘Buried near this spot’.

Maxwell William (224) GOTTS

Arthur Walter (223) and Maxwell William (224) GOTTS, sons of William and Alice GOTTS of 100, Century Road, Southtown, Great Yarmouth, both lost their lives in Flanders during the Great War.

This is the ‘In memoriam’ cards that Ian has for Maxwell.

Maxwell’s Will

One extra piece of information is that Maxwell’s Soldier’s Will is one of the few that can be bought from the Probate Office.

He is registered as dying on 23/3/1918, though this is not as stated in other records, such as Soldiers’ effects which state 25/3/1918.

See the next page for details of the battalion diary  and map for those days.