Name
Richard Arthur Burry
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
12/08/1943
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Trooper
B/62443
Ontario Regiment, R.C.A.C.
11th Army Tank Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AGIRA CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY, SICILY
D, F, 471.
Italy
Headstone Inscription
A LINK DEATH CANNOT SEVER OUR LOVE AND REMEMBRANCE LAST FOR EVER. AUDREY AND JACKIE
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Mark’s Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Lewisham in 1916 and went to Canada as a schoolboy, returning with his parents to the United Kingdom in 1937. He went back to Canada and was later helping to make munitions there. He enlisted in December 1941 shortly after he knew that his brother had been killed. He came to the United Kingdom in July 1942. A year later he went to Sicily where he joined up with the 8th Army. He was killed in action in Sicily.
At the time of his death he was serving with the 11th Army Tank Regiment (Ontario Regiment) Royal Canadian Armoured Corps and held Service Number B/62443. This unit was part of the 1st Canadian Division coming from the United Kingdom and formed part of the British XXX Corps on landing in Sicily near Pachino. They advanced inland north through Sicily on the left of XXX Corps and to the right of the Americans.
He is buried in Plot D, Row F, Grave 471 in the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Sicily.
His wife was Audrey May Burry of New Toronto in Canada, and he left a baby daughter whom he never saw. His parents were Joseph and Ida Burry of 38, Whitehurst Ave, Hitchin and he was their second son. His father had thirty-two years in the Canadian and British armies and had retired as a Regimental Serjeant Major.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘The Battle for Italy’ by W.G.F. Jackson, Herts & Beds Express dated 28th August 1943, Herts Pictorial dated 7th Sep 1943
