BURNE, Charles Radford
| Service Number: | 4742 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 28 September 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 15th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ballykeane, Wicklow, Ireland, 28 May 1894 |
| Home Town: | Oakey, Toowoomba, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Rathdrum National School, County Wicklow, Ireland |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in action, Bullecourt, France, 11 April 1917, aged 22 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Brooweena War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 28 Sep 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4742, 15th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 4742, 15th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Commonwealth embarkation_ship_number: A73 public_note: '' | |
| 28 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 4742, 15th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Commonwealth, Brisbane |
Help us honour Charles Radford Burne's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Charles Radford Burne was a son of Thomas William and Margaret Letitia Burne of Oakey, Queensland. He had been in County Wicklow, Ireland and his family had moved to Australia in 1911. They had a property at Oakey and one at Taronga, in Queensland, which the sons helped to work.
His eldest brother, 3700 Lance Corporal Arthur Edward Thomas Burne M.M., 49th Battalion AIF, had been killed in action in Belgium on 12 October 1916.
Charles arrived in Egypt in May 1916. He was sick with mumps for some time before he joined the 15th Battalion in France at Christmas time in 1916. He was reported as missing during the first Battle of Bullecourt on 11 April 1917, as were thousands of others. His remains were never found and his death was confirmed officially late in 1917.
By this time, back in Australia, his father passed away in July 1917.
Charles’s mother stated on his Roll of Honour form, “He was on a machine gun (Lewis) when last seen by his Sergeant. He was mowing down Germans by the dozen.”
A surviving and youngest brother, 817 Sergeant Edwin Haskins Burne 25th Battalion AIF was sent home to Australia for ‘family reasons’ during October 1917. This was by order of the GOC AIF, General Birdwood, due to the fact he had lost two brothers, his father had passed away and the mother was struggling to manage the family farm.
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