Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Robert Burgess, the son of cabinet maker Gilligan Burgess, was born in September of 1886, in Market Harborough, Leicester, England. Before World War I, Robert migrated from England to Adelaide, previously having been an apprentice to his father as a cabinet maker and continuing with this job in SA. His father did not migrate with him to Foster St in Norwood, where he lived. Robert had a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark hair. He was taller than the average height of the time at 5’11’ stature and weighed 65.3 kilograms, and he was also a member of the Anglican Church.

On the 8th of February, 1915, Robert enlisted in the First World War, aged 28 years and 11 months old. He received the service number 3680, and began his training with the B Base Infantry. Robert joined the Australian Army Medical Corps on the 16th of April, 1915, entering the 7th Field Ambulance Company. There were numerous different field ambulance occupations, but stretcher bearers like Robert had the difficult job of moving the wounded or deeply ill from the front lines to an area where they could be assisted. The dressing station would usually be situated about 5 kilometres from the front lines, where stretcher bearers had a system to carry them. Wounded soldiers were passed from one person to the next until they reached the station.

Robert was promptly transferred to the 1st Field Ambulance, which accompanied the Infantry soldiers to the infamously abhorrent Battle of Gallipoli. Previously he spent 4 months in Egypt in training. There, the day’s routine would generally consist of physical exercise, squad drill, stretcher drill, lectures on first aid, collecting wounded, practice in tent pitching, and loading wagons.

As Gallipoli was the first major battle ANZACs fought, the severe loss they faced was demoralising for all soldiers. On the 19th of December 1915, after a short bout of illness and severe misfortune in battle, Robert was one of many soldiers to evacuate, with the evacuation considered the most strategic move in the campaign. After Gallipoli, Robert moved with the 1st Field Ambulance to Mudros, Greece, where he contracted influenza and was hospitalised. Robert’s unit travelled to Lemnos, a city about 20 kilometres from Mudros, spending a quiet Christmas there. 

On the 11th of January, 1916, Robert contracted jaundice. Despite the uncomfortable symptoms and illness, he was not able to fully recover before the 1st Field Ambulance moved to Heliopolis, Egypt, where Robert was finally admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital. He stayed there for quite a while because he also had varicose veins on his body. Varicose veins and jaundice are indicative of liver disease, something Robert may have contracted.

Soon, Robert moved back to re-join his unit, the 1st Field Ambulance Company, but after only two days with them, he was taken on strength to join the British Expeditionary Force. The BEF primarily consisted of British soldiers, but many soldiers from different places joined as they lacked sufficient numbers of soldiers. In this case, the BEF went to Northern France to assist soldiers there from a potential onslaught from the Germans. Robert would have been one of many reinforcements for this operation.

While Robert was in France with the BEF, on the 23rd of April 1916 he contracted tonsilitis, being admitted to hospital. After being discharged, Robert spent time with the unit for a few months, before taking leave from the war in France to England. Many soldiers were allowed some days leave from the war, because of the monotony of their occupation or the horrors they had seen in battles. Robert spent only a week in England, then returned to the BEF.

Robert was taken on strength to the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station on the 22nd of April. In Rouen, France, where the 1st CCS was based, Robert was painstakingly alternating between being in hospital and on the front lines, facing numerous different illnesses, such as laryngitis and influenza. These occurred during the months of April 1916 and February 1917. Much of what the 1st CCS was doing connected with the endeavours of the British Army, supporting the wounded and afflicted soldiers from there.

When Robert was working with the 1st CCS, his father wrote to the army, requesting his son’s address. Gilligan was under the impression that Robert was still working with the 7th Field Ambulance, as he had been at the beginning of the war. 

Robert was taken on strength to the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station in December of 1917. They had experienced many casualties after the Battle of Messines and needed soldiers to support them through the diseases, wounds, and deaths of those who would soon be sent to the 2nd CCS. Messines was one of the deadliest in World War I, with it containing the largest explosion prior to the creation of the atomic bomb.

On the 30th of April 1918, Robert was granted special leave to Etaples, a commune in France. Prior to World War I, Etaples had a population of approximately 5,000. During many of the attacks on the Western Front, however, Etaples became a huge Allied military camp, and a place where the wounded could be transported between hospitals, earning it the nickname ‘hospital city’. In May 1918, Etaples was heavily bombed by the Germans, executing one of the great tragedies of the First World War. Many of the ailing soldiers were unable to move to safety, and Robert would have been allowed leave to assist the wounded there after the catastrophe. He returned to his unit three days later.

A few months later, around the time that the Hundred Day Offensive began, Robert departed France on leave to the UK. He returned in a month, advancing with his unit until March of 1919, when he was admitted to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital with bronchitis. It was additionally discovered that Robert had tuberculosis, an infectious disease of the lungs. Robert soon had signs of improvement, despite the doctor recording that he thought the present degree of disability was permanent. TB was the most common reason for discharge from military service in World War 1.

After his TB diagnosis, Robert was granted three months leave, from the 23rd of May, 1919, to the 23rd of August, 1919, to become a forester at Whitemead Park in Lydney, Gloucestershire. Robert returned  to Australia by ship when he was discharged on the 11th of October 1920. He was still medically unfit to persevere at war, suffering from residual effects of tuberculosis.

After World War I, Robert Burgess received the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal. He also married a woman named Emily. Robert died on the 5th of April 1928, aged 40 years old, 8 years after he returned from the war. It is quite possible that tuberculosis, an illness that Robert previously had, was the cause of his death. TB germs can remain alive in the body and become active again later. Robert’s grave is situated in St Jude’s Church of England Cemetery, Brighton, South Australia.

Reference List:

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Australian Soldiers, Memorials and Military History n.d., vwma.org.au, viewed 17 September 2023, <https://vwma.org.au/public/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=1st+field+ambulance&commit=>.

corporateName =Department of Veterans’ Affairs; address=21 Genge St, CC 2020, Australian Army Medical Corps in World War I | Anzac Portal, anzacportal.dva.gov.au.

Department of Veterans’ Affairs, CC n.d., Evacuation from Gallipoli 1915, Anzac Portal.

Details n.d., www.aif.adfa.edu.au, viewed 17 September 2023, <https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=39263>.

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Murray, J.F. (2015). Tuberculosis and World War I. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 192(4), pp.411–414. doi:https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201501-0135oe.

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No. 1 Australian General Hospital | Through These Lines n.d., throughtheselines.com.au, viewed 13 September 2023, <https://throughtheselines.com.au/research/1-AGH#:~:text=Arriving%20in%20Egypt%20on%20January>.

Robert Burgess n.d., www.awm.gov.au, viewed 13 September 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2169504>.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica 2017, British Expeditionary Force, Encyclopædia Britannica.

Wallet 1 of 1 - Unofficial History 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station n.d., www.awm.gov.au, viewed 17 September 2023, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2799262?image=13>.