Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

No railway employment record card for James Alfred BURNS (Service Number 1411) can be located. He had been born in Sydney on 16 August 1879. A search of the Government Gazette listings of railway staff for 31 December 1914 shows seven men named James Burns employed, none of whom had a second initial. None of the seven are obviously James A. Burns, as they are not employed in the Traffic Branch, or are long term employees who have risen to the rank of station master. Since Burns gives his calling on enlistment as ‘miner’ it may be guessed that his railway employment was incidental to a longer career in another industry.
There are also seven men named James Burns employed in 1917, though two are ‘serving with the AIF’. One of these is James Burns (Service Number 3015A) who also died and whose name is included in the Honour Rolls, and the other would be James Alfred Burns (Service Number 1411), the subject of this biography. The printed roll shows that James A Burns served the railway in the Traffic Branch. He enlisted with the AIF on 25 January 1916. He was married, to Ivy.
He left Australia through Sydney on HMAT ‘Ulysses’ on 20 February 1916 and reached Marseilles on 7 May. As might be expected of a miner he was assigned to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company.
Through the rest of 1916 he had two periods in hospital and was slightly wounded in January 1917.
He was killed in action at Hooge on 6 September 1917. He was working building dug outs when a shell burst killed him instantly. He is buried in the Menin Road South Military Cemetery at Ypres.
(NAA B2455-3171958)