by Mayukh Ghosh
"It is our duty, Mr. Pullin. We cannot do anything else."
September 3, 1914.
9 in the morning.
Victoria Hall in Leeds Town Hall.
500 men send their names.
Enlisting for a period of three years or the duration of the war.
Among them are three Yorkshire cricketers.
Roy Kilner. Arthur Dolphin. Major Booth.
July 1, 1916.
7:20 am.
Second Lieutenant Major Booth is hit by a shell fragment.
It penetrates his shoulder and probably touches his heart.
He tries to move forward but can do so for only a few yards.
Abe Waddington rushes out and gets hit by sharpnel in both legs and in the hands.
He finds several severely injured men. Some dead. Others almost dead.
Among them one is his cricketing hero.
Major Booth.
Waddington picks him up and a few moments later Booth passes away in his arms.
Rats surround the bodies.
Waddington valiantly keeps the rats away from touching the body of his hero.
Waadinton is finally rescued but they leave behind Booth's body.
They retrieve it after another nine months.
Identifying it by an MCC cigarette case from his pocket.
Perhaps the one he had won playing deck quoits on the ship to South Africa in 1913.
Major Booth was born in Pudsey.
It was not the best place for a child.
The infant mortality rate was high.
Scarlet fever, diarrhoea, enteric fever and measles caused most of the deaths.
From an early age, Booth took a keen interest in cricket.
Local lad 'Long' John Tunnicliffe was his hero. He was already playing for Yorkshire.
His years with the local club teams made him a star.
He made his debut for Yorkshire first team in 1908 but could play only two FC matches.
Then, a year later, he admirably led Wath CC to success and earned the comeback to the Yorkshire team.
They were struggling.
Till they found the two youngsters.
Major Booth and Alonzo Drake.
Booth's rise to the top was fast.
The magazine 'Cricket' wrote: "Booth and Drake should be towers of strength in the Yorkshire team during the next few years."
If only....
He went to South Africa in 1913/14 and played two Test matches.
He would have played more if he had not met with a car accident just outside Durban after the first Test was over.
But everyone knew that he would get more chances.
Then war intervened and all was over.
In 1919 when cricket resumed Yorkshire were without its two all-rounders.
As a result, Wilfred Rhodes had to bowl more and his bowling improved.
Roy Kilner too developed his skills and became a fine bowler.
And there was Abe Waddington. Taking his hero's place in the team.
But it was Booth's sister who suffered the most due to his untimely death.
Abe Waddington visited Anne Louise Booth but could not convince her that her brother had died in action.
For years, every night she used to place a light in the window of their family cottage in the hope that her brother would return.
She never allowed anyone to touch anything in Booth's room till the 1950s.
Roy Kilner, himself injured in action, wrote from his hospital bed: " He was always the same old fellow, one of the few who never did get a 'swollen head'. I had the pleasure of being in his company on the eve of the 'scrap'......
“We can never replace him- in fact, Yorkshire will not be Yorkshire for a long time without Major Booth."
Twelve years later Kilner himself was struck down by enteric fever.
But not before he named his second son Major Kilner.
Major Booth was born on December 10, 1886.