Name
Charles Bertram Burden
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/07/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
205441
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
10th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 45 and 47.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor
Pre War
Charles Bertram Burden was born in Southsea, Hampshire in 1889, the son of Charles and Emma Burden and baptised at St Thomas Church, Bedhampton on 17 June 1889. He was one of five children.
Sadly his mother died on 7 September 1893 when he was five years old, but his father married again in 1896 to Rose Graham and they had two children, Rose and William.
On the 1901 Census the family were living next door to the Malthouse & Flour Mills, West Street, Havant, Hants where his father was working as a Corn Miller. They remained in Havant on the 1911 Census, living at Mill Cottage, West Street, Havant, Herts, when Charles was working as a Clerk for a Wine and Spirit Merchant.
The family later moved to Hemel Hempstead where his father had opened a grocery store at 226 London Road, Boxmoor by 1913, which he ran with the assistance of his two youngest sons Cecil and William.
Wartime Service
Charles was called up in 1916 and enlisted in Watford joining the Northumberland Fusiliers under reg. no. 316306 and, after basic training, was transferred to the 10th Battalion, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment. He was sent overseas in April 1917 to join the Battalion in Belgium.
He saw action in June 1917, fighting in the Battle of Messines, followed by the Battle of Pilckem Ridge the following month, in which the Battalion lost almost a third of their strength in three days of fighting. Charles was one of those who was killed in action at Ypres on 31 July 1917, aged 28. He has no known grave, but his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £3 17s 1d.
His half brother William served with the London Regiment .
N.B. SDIGW records state that his reg. no. with Northumberland Fusiliers was 19564, however the medal record card states it was 316306.
CWGC website states that he was 17 years old when he was actually 28.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
