338.Bothamley Lane, Titahi Bay, Porirua

Robert Westley Bothamley was born in Wellington on the 9th December 1888.  He was the third son, and fourth of seven children born to Arthur Thomas and Elizabeth (nee Poulton) Bothamley.[i]

Arthur Thomas Bothamley, trained in the legal profession and from 1892 was the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, a parliament position, from 1892 to 1934.[ii]

Robert was a clerk in the Wellington branch of the Union Bank of Australia before joining, as a law clerk, the legal firm of Young and Tripe.[iv]

On the 7th June 1916 he entered Featherston Camp with the 19th

Reinforcements as 18050 Lieutenant Robert Westley Bothamley, New Zealand Field

Artillery.  Lieutenant Bothamley’s military file notes that he had served from 1915

as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Wellington Garrison Artillery.

Robert Westley Bothamley married Doris Evelyn Gear (notes), while he was at

Featherston, the newspaper report listing that Doris was the youngest daughter of Ruth and the late James Gear. James Gear had created the Gear Meat Company, Wellington.While training with the 19th on the 3rd November 1916 and on a training exercise with the No 1 Battery, near Morrison’s Bush, Masterton, Lieutenant Bothamley’s horse reared and fell. Lieutenant Bothamley was trapped under the horse and injured.[v]

Because of his injury he was transferred to Headquarters staff on the 22nd November 1916 and then on the 8th June 1917 as the Quartermaster on  HMNZT Maunganui which was carrying the 26th Reinforcements NZEF, 18th Reinforcements Maori and 26th  reinforcements NZ Rifle Brigade.

The SS Maunganui was officially requisitioned from the Union Steamship Company on August 23, 1914 for war service and she was converted for trooping duties as His Majesty’s New Zealand Transport Maunganui.

1914 October 16: The first convoy carrying New Zealand troops to Egypt departed from Wellington.  Designated as HMNZT No 30, Maunganui carried elements of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.  Another Union Line vessel in that convoy was the Tahiti, and these two liners spent most of the war years travelling in company.  It was the largest single contingent to leave the country; 8,427 men and 3,815 horses.  Altogether Maunganui made eleven voyages from New Zealand with troops, and on nine of these she sailed with Tahiti, six voyages being to England and three to Egypt.  The vessel was also used to carry British troops to the Mediterranean and Near East.

The Mauganui arrived in England on the 15th August 1917 by then he had been declared as medically unfit for active service and home duty and was shipped back to New Zealand and discharged, on the 12th December 1917, from the NZEF and returned as a 2nd Lieutenant of the Wellington Garrison Artillery.

After the war Robert Westley Bothamley went farming in the Otaki before returning to Porirua and a law practice in Porirua. Robert and Doris lived in the Gear Homestead, Porirua and Robert and Doris also owned a property in Titahi Bay, on what is now known as Bothamley Lane[vi].

Robert was a councillor on the Makara County Council representing the Porirua / Titahi Bay Riding, he also was a member of the Hutt Power Board for a number of years. Doris was involved in the Plunket movement in the Porirua District.

Memories of Felicity Bothamly, 2009

 “My grandfather was Robert Westley Bothamley. He had two cannons at Gear Homestead in Papakowhai when I visited there as a child. I can still see them now, under the trees opposite the shed. My sister and I used to sit on them and climb on them. When grandfather died in 1967, I was about 14 years old. The Estate was dispersed and the cannons were passed on to the Military and are now at the Waiouru Army Military Camp. I know that at least one of the two cannons is still there, as family have called in and visited the camp to look at it. I thought there was a plaque with the cannon to say it was donated by our family however I am not sure about that. I think the other is at Trentham."

Robert Westley Bothamley continued to live at the Gear Homestead after Eva’s death he died on the 14th April 1967.

The Bothamleys' are also remembered with the naming of Bothamley Park, Porirua East.

Notes

Two dates are listed for the Bothamley-Gear wedding NZ BDM 1915/13588 (13th April 1915) and Newspaper / Military files 24th July 1916. The photo of Elizabeth & Robert show Robert in the uniform of a Lieutenant. Four of the Bothamley brothers served in WW1; Lieutenant Commander Grafton Francis Bothamley -  Royal Naval Reserve, 2nd Lieutenant Henry Hall Dare Bothamley – Royal Flying Corps, Private Charles Mildmay Bothamley – 27th Reinforcements.  One sister Phyllis Lucinda Bothamley worked in the New Zealand Club, London during the war.

1. Authors: 

This story and place was completed in Poriruawarstories.com. The Remembrance Army earlier funded the new street blade for the poppy.  Minor retrospective editing by Poppy Places.