John Burns
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
John Burns was born in 1882 the son of John and Mary Burns. He married his wife Mary Tymon (born 19th March 1886) at Nottingham in 1906, they lived at 81 Simons Terrace, Westminster St, Nottingham and went on to have a son Terrence born 17th April 1915, he died on 22nd December 1916. Commencing 11th October 1915 his widow was awarded a pension of 15 shillings a week but was reduced to 10 shillings a week following the death of her son Terence. His widow remarried to become Mary Carroll and lived at 22 Midland Terrace Stapleford Nottingham.
He was either a regular or ex regular on the reserve list prior to the war. He moved to France with the 1st Battalion on 4 November 1914. 21st March - 11.30 pm - Relief complete. Weather fine, and trenches dry though they require a great deal of work to make the line a strong one. Parapets not bullet proof and very little wire out in front. Battalion on taking over trenches commence work immediately on parapets and wire. 22nd March - 1 am, Very heavy rifle fire opened on our right in direction of Indian Division. 10 am, Hostile artillery commence systematic bombardment of farmhouses destroying several by fire. Allied and enemy aircraft reconnoitre lines. 5 pm, Official telegram received to say Przasnysz has fallen, this resulting in capture of enormous quantities of men and ammunitions by the victorious Russian army. 7.30pm, Reinforcements 2 officers (Capt. Young and Lieut Wylie) and 193 men report at Trench Headquarters. These are at once detailed to Companies and go up to the trenches.. Lt Wylie is detailed to take over Machine Gun Section from 2/Lt Copland who now joins B company. 9 pm, Clouds over and rains fairly heavily for an hour, this makes approaches to trenches very muddy and difficult to move over. 11.30 pm, Heavy burst of Machine Gun fire beyond Neuve Chapelle, both British and enemy guns firing, reason unknown. At some point during the day John was killed and has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial France. John Morse
Served in the South African Campaign (Boer War)
