Name
Raymond Pelham Burles
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/07/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
12919
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley, Berkhamsted - Berkhamsted Collegiate School Memorial, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Not on the Kings Langley memorials
Pre War
Raymond Pelham Burles was born in Kings Langley in 1897, the son of James and Mary Rosina (Rose) Burles and one of four children. On the 1901 Census the family were living at Snatchups End, Kings Langley, where his father was a manager at the Paper Mill (John Dickinson & Co.).
They had moved to 19 Fishery Road, Boxmoor, Herts by 1911 when his father remained a manufacturing stationer manager and Raymond was a 14 year old schoolboy, who was then attending Berkhamsted Collegiate School.
He left school in 1910 and started work at John Dickinson at Apsley Mills and remained working there until the outbreak of war.
His parents later lived at Mill House, Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Watford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, being posted to The 6th (Service) Battalion for basic training at Aldershot. The Battalion moved to Salisbury Plain in May 1915 in preparation for mobilisation. They arrived at La Havre, France on 30 July 1915 en route to Bienvillers-au-Boise near Albert. Raymond was then promoted to Lance Corporal at the age of 19.
He saw his first major action during the Battle of the Somme, in July 1916 at Bazentin Ridge. The Battalion were in trenches south of Contalmaison and were ordered to attack and capture Pozieres but were held up by hostile machine guns. Casualties were high and Raymond was among 25 missing, presumed dead from the Battalion on 15 July 1916 with many more killed or wounded. A letter to his parents was published in the local newspaper and reported that he was "wounded in the head and is missing" and could give "no hope that he is still alive". Another reported that he had been "wounded in the face" and sat in a shell hole for 15 to 20 minutes holding a field dressing to his wound, but was wounded again in the back which then cost him his life.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £8 10s and pay owing of £7 12s 1d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, hemelheroes.com
