Arthur Drummond Borton

Arthur Drummond Borton was born in Malta on 1 July 1883, the place where his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Close Borton of the 13th Somerset Light Infantry, was posted. A military background had always been a feature of his family, since his grandfather, General Sir Arthur Borton, had been Governor of Malta from 1878 to 1884. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was given his first commission as a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps (the 60th Rifles) on 18 January 1902. His military service started during the final stages of the Second Boer War, when he took part in infantry operations in the Transvaal between March and May 1902. After being promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 6 May 1906, he held various posts during peacetime in Bermuda, the West Indies, Ireland and India. Because of long-standing health problems caused by his service in South Africa, he was discharged from the Army in 1908 and then went to the United States, where he spent six years running a fruit farm on the Pacific Coast.

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 changed the course of his civilian life. Borton went back to England at once to rejoin the King's Royal Rifle Corps. In order to take part in aerial operations, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in January 1915 as an observer with No. 3 Squadron in France. On 5 March 1915, whilst on a reconnaissance flight over German positions, his plane crashed badly; the pilot had fractures in both legs and Borton suffered severe concussions as well as breaking his neck in three places. Even though the medical boards decided that he was unfit for any more military duties, he managed to avoid being discharged by obtaining a position as a lieutenant-commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; in this combined naval command he took charge of a detachment of Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Motor Machine-Gun Armoured Cars fitted with Maxim guns on Rolls-Royce chassis.

In August 1915, Borton was sent to Suvla Bay as part of the Gallipoli Campaign and subsequently led his detachment of naval armoured cars through tough amphibious and coastal defence operations. Because of the steep ground and the dense undergrowth on the Ottoman peninsula, movement of the vehicles was limited and this meant that his troops often had to operate on foot in order to provide suppressive fire for the advances of the front-line infantry. For his tactical leadership and the fact that he had remained on duty continuously under fire during the Gallipoli operations, he received the Distinguished Service Order, the award being announced in the Gazette on 31 May 1916.

In June 1916 Borton returned to the British Army and was given the position of second-in-command of the 2nd/22nd (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (The Queen's). After having served on both the Western Front and the Salonika Front, he took over command of the battalion as temporary lieutenant-colonel on 17 March 1917 and then led the unit to Egypt to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Edmund Allenby.

On 7 November 1917, as part of the Southern Palestine Offensive, the 2nd/22nd London Regiment was given the job of breaking through the Ottoman defensive positions at Tel-el-Sheria in the Battle of Hareira and Sheria. When advancing towards the objective at night over unfamiliar ground, Borton arranged his battalion for an attack at dawn. After the advancing waves were checked by intense machine-gun fire, he placed himself in direct exposure to the machine-gun fire along the front line, reorganized his men and led the assault which resulted in the capture of the main trench system. Later in the action, he collected a number of volunteers to launch an attack on an Ottoman field artillery battery that was firing at point-blank range, and they successfully captured both the guns and the crews.

Because of his actions at Tel-el-Sheria he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the entry for this being number 915 in the official Victoria Cross register. The announcement of his appointment appeared in the Fifth Supplement to The London Gazette on 18 December 1917 (Issue 30433, page 13221). The complete official citation is as follows:

"For most conspicuous bravery and leadership. Under most difficult conditions in darkness and in an unknown country, he deployed his battalion for attack, and at dawn led his attacking companies against the strongly held position. When the leading waves were checked by a withering machine-gun fire, Lt.-Col. Borton showed an utter contempt of danger, and moved freely up and down his lines under heavy fire. Reorganising his command, he led his men forward, and captured the position. At a later stage of the fight, he led a party of volunteers against a battery of field guns in action at point-blank range, capturing the guns and the detachments. His fearless leadership was an inspiring example to the whole Brigade."

On 23 February 1918 at Buckingham Palace King George V bestowed upon Borton both the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order. He was given the rank of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1919 New Year Honours in recognition of his operational service after receiving the Victoria Cross. Acknowledgement of his wartime command was also made by the Allied governments, Imperial Russia presenting him with the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th Class with Swords, and Egypt granting him the Order of the Nile.

In 1919, Borton took part in the North Russia Relief Force and worked in the Archangel area while the Allied intervention was going on in the Russian Civil War. After he had returned to England, he acted as a pallbearer at the funeral of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. He retired from the military on 30 September 1921 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died on 5 January 1933 at the age of 49 in Southwold, Suffolk and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's at Hunton, Kent.

Historical records correct the mistake found in some secondary biographical summaries. These summaries often confuse Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Drummond Borton VC (1883–1933) with his grandfather, General Sir Arthur Borton GCB GCMG (1814–1893), or with his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Close Borton (1851–1927). Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Drummond Borton VC never held the rank of Major-General, was not born in 1861, and did not receive the Victoria Cross at Bergendal in 1900; his highest operational rank was that of Lieutenant-Colonel, and it was at Tel-el-Sheria, in Palestine, in 1917 that he earned his Victoria Cross.