BURNS, George Edward
| Service Number: | 3251 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Wagga Wagga, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 5 November 1916, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Grevillers British Cemetery Grevillers British Cemetery, Grevillers, Picardie, France, AIF Burial Ground, Flers, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 5 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 3251, 1st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 3251, 1st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Sydney |
Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
George Edward BURNS, (Service Number 3251) was born on 3 May 1887 at Jerilderie. On 27 September he became a temporary gatekeeper in the Sydney District, changing his role to that of temporary porter in November and becoming a permanent employee on 13 August 1914. He was granted leave to join the Expeditionary Forces on 5 August 1915, though he had in fact enlisted already. He left Australia through Sydney on 5 October 1915 aboard HMAT ‘Themistocles’, and on reaching Egypt was taken on the strength of the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion in February.
He proceeded through Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force in France travelling via Marseilles. While in France he was sent to the Lewis Machine Gun School of Instruction in September.
He was killed in action with seven others on 5 November 1916 at Flers, but it was not until 28th February that the front lines had been re-established in such a way that the bodies could be dealt with by burial in a mass grave about 450 yards N.N.W of Gueudecourt. The location was recorded and after the war in the rationalisation of cemeteries, Burns was exhumed, and he was then buried at Grevilliers British Cemetery, Picardie, France.
Unfortunately, the first telegrams advising of his death, to his family in Australia, gave the erroneous date of 5 October and when letters were received from him dated later in October his parents clutched at the hope that he was not dead at all. Several anguished letters, including one from a member of Federal Parliament to whom the father, who was the station master at Dunmore on the South Coast, had made representations are preserved in Burn’s National Archives file.
(NAA B2455-3171869)
Submitted 12 May 2023 by John Oakes