Private Harold Burton

Private Harold Burton

7th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment

Private Harold Burton was born in 1894 in Roxby, Lincolnshire. He was the eldest son of George and Fanny Burton and brother to Ernest. The 1911 census records the family as living in Roxby Carrs, Lincolnshire where Harold’s father George, was a farmer.

Harold enlisted at Scunthorpe into the 7th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on the 14th December 1914, aged 20. The 7th (Service) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment was raised at Lincoln in September 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Second New Army and joined the 51st Brigade, 17th (Northern) Division. After initial training, the Division moved to Bovington and Lulworth Dorset.

The Battalion proceeded to Folkstone on the 14th of July 1915 to embark for Boulogne France. On arrival, they moved into the Southern Ypres salient for trench familiarisation and then took over the front lines in that area. In the spring of 1916 they were in action at the Bluff, south east of Ypres on the Comines canal. The 17th (Northern) Division had moved to relieve the 3rd Division in the canal sector between 5th and 8th February 1916, and placed 51st Brigade on a 1300 yard front at the Bluff position. Enemy shellfire began to fall in the morning of 14 February, intensifying on the Bluff from mid- afternoon. German infantry attacked between the canal bank and the Ravine. They entered and captured the front line trenches but were driven out of the support lines behind the front.

Harold Burton went out in a bombing party on the evening of 15th February 1916 and according to an eye witness was killed by a bomb. The operations in the area of the Bluff, from the start of the enemy attack until noon on 17 February, cost the British 1,294 casualties.

Pte Harold Burton was killed on the 15th February 1916 aged 22 years old, during a bombing assault to regain trenches at The Bluff

Remembered with Honour
Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.