E/786 L-Cpl Edward L Burdekin, 17th Royal Fusiliers KIA 17 March 1916
Edward Lewis Burdekin was born in St. Giles, London on 5 March 1891 and baptised at St. Giles-in-the-Fields the following month. His parents, Thomas Lewis Burdekin (a gas lantern maker) and Rosetta Burdekin (née Skelly, died 1893) both came from St. Pancras. In 1911 he was employed as a French Polisher. At the time of his enlistment he lived in Hampstead Road, London N.W.
In early September 1914 he enlisted in London into the Empire Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and was given the regimental number E/786. The battalion, under the auspices of the British Empire Committee (chairman, and later Honorary Colonel of the Regiment, General Sir Bindon Blood) was raised within ten days of permission being given on 30 August, and by 12 September 1914 was in camp at Warlingham. The battalion was raised in Pickering Court, off St James's Street. Recruits came from across the country, most being drawn from West End banks, the Stock Exchange, Insurance Brokers and the theatre, with a smattering of men from the Imperial Light Horse, raised during Second Boer War.
After training with the battalion in Warlingham, Clipstone and Tidworth, Cpl Burdekin entered the France & Flanders theatre via Folkestone and Boulogne on 17 November 1915. At that time he was serving as a Lance Corporal with 'D' Company, the 17th (Service) battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Empire) in the 99th Brigade of the 33rd Division, the battalion being 31 officers and 994 other ranks strong. Shortly thereafter, on 25 November, the battalion marched from Busnes to Annezin, there to accompany the rest of the 199th Brigade in joining the 2nd Division. Then on 13 December 1915 the battalion transferred to the 5th Brigade of that Division, with whom they had just had their first initiation into trench warfare, in the bad, waterlogged and sniped conditions of the Cuinchy sector. The battalion's first substantial experience of holding the line seems to have come at the end of the following month when they took over the front line between Festubert and L'Epinette (later in the w
War Diary described as 'the Islands') from the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at 7pm on 30 January 1916, 'D' Company seemingly being in the support line. Tasks included night patrols and working parties and the battalion faced sniping and occasionally artillery fire, their tour in the line extending to 3 February, and then again 7-11 February, followed by a fortnight in billets.
L-Cpl Burdekin was killed in action only a month later, on 17 March 1916, his death being recorded in the War Office daily casualty list dated 6 April 1916. At this time the battalion was in the line in front of the main ridge of the Notre Dame de Lorette Spur, in the Souchez-Angres-Calonne sector, the 17th being a fine, warm day. The battalion was holding the southern or Right (Angres 1) sub-section of the Angres Section, beginning, seemingly, circa Solferino Trench and running along Morrow Trench, Cooker Alley and Angres Alley (Bovril Alley, illustrated, being the northern boundary of Angres 3, and thus the whole section).
Everard Wyrall's history of the battalion has the following note:
"Towards the end of this long tour [the battalion was in the front line from 2 to 19 March 1916] the Bosche became increasingly active whilst his snipers were much more alert. The 17th of March was a noisy day, rifle grenades, trench-mortar bombs, snipers and the enemy's artillery making things very uncomfortable in the front line. [The War Diary adds 'Extension of enemy's saps was suspected owing to increased range of trench mortars.'] Many 'Whizz-bangs' were fired and 3 casualties were suffered - 2 O.R.'s killed and 1 wounded" (Wyrall, p.21).
L-Cpl Burdekin's financial effects of £3 10s 3d, together with a weekly lifetime pension of 7s 2d went to his step-mother, Mary, and his War Gratuity of £6 10s to his father Thomas Lewis Burdekin, both of 10 Netley Street, Hampstead Road.
He lies buried in BULLY GRENAY Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France (plot A.46), next to 835 GODFREY, F E, also a Private, Royal Fusiliers 17th Bn, who died the same day, aged 21. (Bully-Grenay, 20 km north of Arras, is the name of the railway station (on the main Hazebrouck-Arras line) serving this village and Grenay, but the double name was generally applied to the village and the communal cemetery of Bully by the troops. The FRENCH EXTENSION was made by French troops on the west side of the communal cemetery, and Commonwealth forces, who took their place in this part of the line in June 1915, buried in it until June 1916.)
The Empire Battalion Of The Royal Fusiliers Being Inspected In Green Park By Major General C L Woollcombe
The 17th Empire Battalion Royal Fusiliers In Training
Both: UK Photo & Social History Archive
© IWM Q 14734
Captain Macauley, R. A. M. C., in Bovril Alley, an old communication trench, very deep, camouflaged by flowers, etc., Built by the French, it ran from Bully-Grenay to the Angres Sector. 2nd R.N. Field Ambulance, R.N. Division, August 1916.
Q14736
Rat Pit Bearer Relay Post in Bovril Alley, a communication trench between Bully-Grenay and the Angres Sector. 2nd R.N. Field. Ambulance, R.N. division, August 1916.
IWM Q 14731
Bovril Alley. Communication trench from Bully-Grenay to Angres Sector. 18pdr field gun emplacements in mid-distance. Bully-Grenay village and Church behind. R.N. Division, August 1916.
Map from 5th Brigade War Diary for March 1916 showing SAA and Mills Bomb stores, observation and sniping posts
Detail of map showing approximate line held by 17th Royal Fusiliers 2-19 March 1918 (Solferino Trench, bottom right, to Angres Alley, top left)
Extract of defensive scheme for Angres Section, March 1916 showing Section and other boundaries.
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