Pte 13587 Edward Burns

Edward Burns was born in Liverpool on 28th November 1895 and , the youngest son of Edward Burns and Sarah Jane (née Cunningham). He was baptised in All Saints, Liverpool, on 18th December 1895, his parents’ residence given as 123 Victoria Square and his father’s occupation as seaman. Edward had an older sister Alice and an older brother Hamilton. His parents married on 6th May 1889 at St Simon, Liverpool. Father Edward was a 22 year old mariner, 15 St Vincent Rd, mother Sarah was 21, address 23 Skelhorne St. 

His father appears to have died when Edward was young. There are no Liverpool death records so with being a mariner it may have been at sea. The mother remarried on 25th Dec 1898 at St Nicholas, Liverpool. Sarah was a 31 year old widow, address 10 Rigby St and she wed widower John Palmer who was a 31 year old carter of 12 Rigby St. 

 

In 1901 his mother and stepfather are living at 26 Cockerell Street, Kirkdale. 

His mother is 33, his stepfather is a general carter, his son John Palmer is 12, Hamilton is 8 and Edward 5.

 

In 1911 Edward and his brother Hamilton, 18, are living as boarders with their married sister Alice, 22, and her husband Robert Kynock and their infant daughter Lydia at 66 Barry Street, Kirkdale.  Edward is 16, employed as a bread shop errand boy.

 

He enlisted in Seaforth, Liverpool and was serving in ‘D’ Company, 14th Platoon of the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 13587 when he was killed in action on the 22^nd March 1918, aged 22, during the German Spring Offensive.

 

The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that Edward served 27 months, enlisting in November or December 1915.

 

Edward was declared Missing between 22nd and the 30th March on the St. Quentin front. His mother made enquiries with the International Red Cross and received a negative reply, sent 25th May.  His sister Alice, Mrs. Kynock, at 21 Cockerell Street, later made enquiries, and also received a negative response, sent on 15th October 1918.  His death was officially accepted as having occurred on 22nd March 1918 at Roupy.  

The Battalion diary gives an overview of the events of the 22nd March 1918 as follows:

22^nd  GERMAINE – HAM- MOYENCOURT

The battalion moved up accordingly being in position at 6:30 a.m. About 3pm the enemy attacked the left of our position and advanced on our left flank towards FLUQUIERES. At 4:30 pm an attack was launched on our front and the enemy forced his way through on our right. The remainder of the Battalion was forced to retire to south of FLUQUIERES. During this engagement the Battalion lost 11 Officers and About 21 O.R. The order was given to retire to the defences at HAM. The Battalion by this time was very weak, and passing through the 20^th Division took up positions in HAM, as ordered, getting into position at 2am.

Edward has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France. 

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.