The Burleigh brothers

In the porch of Clapham’s Holy Trinity Church is the First World War memorial. It lists three servicemen named Burleigh: Bennet, a Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, James, an Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Lieutenant with a Military Cross; and Robert, a Royal Air Force officer.

On an outer wall of the church is a memorial for the Old Manorians and there again are the three Burleighs.

The Commonwealth War Graves website shows that the three were brothers, the sons of Bennet Burleigh. Bennet Sr was an extraordinary character – politician, journalist and war correspondent, and a Clapham resident. He was married three times and had five sons and four daughters.

Born in Glasgow around 1840, his father was in the timber trade. At the age of 20 he made what was described as a “very unfortunate and unsuitable marriage”. However, the couple separated and he went off to America with his father’s designs for an underwater limpet mine which, in theory, could penetrate iron plating. He joined the Confederate cause in the Civil War. He did some privateering, and was captured and was sentenced to death twice, escaped and returned to Glasgow, where he went to university. In 1868 he divorced his wife. At some point he changed the spelling of his surname from Burley to Burleigh.

Bennet later returned to the US and worked as a journalist. Whilst there he married Marion and they had four children. They returned to the UK where he worked in newspapers and, from 1882, was at The Daily Telegraph, becoming their chief war correspondent.

From the 1880s the Burleigh family lived in South London. In 1881 they were living in Herne Hill and between 1888 and 1892 Bennet, his wife Marion and the four children lived at 31 Orlando Road, Clapham.

Around 1892 Bennet met a young Belgian artist named Bertha Preuss. They were to have five children: a daughter named Bertha and four sons: Robert, Bennet, James and Bertie (born in 1897).

Bennet’s wife Marion died in 1895 and he married Bertha at Holy Trinity Clapham in 1898.

The 1901 census shows the family living at 95 Clapham Common Northside; Bennet’s occupation was given as “War correspondent” on the form but this was crossed out and amended to read “means author”. Bertha was 29 and, curiously, Bennet’s age was given as 35 although he was actually 60. In the household there were the four sons and one daughter and Bennet’s daughter Beatrice from his earlier marriage, plus a servant.

Robert, Bennet and James, the three eldest boys, went to the Manor School on Clapham Common Northside near Wix’s Lane. The school had been in the Manor House in Old Town until 1901, hence its name.

By 1906 the Burleighs had moved to 4 Victoria Road, now Victoria Rise. This remained their home for over ten years before they moved to Fulham. The 1911 census shows that the house had 13 rooms. (Incidentally, on this census Bennet gave his correct age of 70.)

Robert, the eldest boy, went on to University College in Hampstead and then to the City of London School for Boys on the Embankment and his three brothers followed him there. Both Bennet and James served in the school Officer Training Corps.

In 1911 Robert enrolled in the City and Guilds Technical College in South Kensington where he studied electrical engineering. On leaving school the second son Bennet Jr became a journalist like his father. He moved up to Manchester to work for the Daily Mail and, like many young men joined the territorial army. In April 1914, his name was put forward for a commission and he was gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th Lancashire Fusiliers.

Bennet Sr retired in December 1913 aged 73 but it was to be a short retirement as he died on 17 June 1914. Two months later, war was declared and almost immediately the three eldest boys joined the colours.

Bennet was already in the Territorials, Robert was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and James, who had only recently left school, enlisted as a private in the 14th Londons, known as the London Scottish. Later the youngest son Bertie joined the 23rd Londons. He was the only one to survive the war.

Bennet Jr was promoted to Lieutenant and on 9 September 1914 his battalion sailed for Egypt. On 5 May 1915 they went to Gallipoli where they fought in the second battle of Krithia, suffering very heavy casualties. He was Mentioned in Despatches for “several daring reconnaissances and trench raids”. A contemporary account says that “One raid on a snipers' nest was made at noon so the Turks literally were caught napping.” On 14 July Bennet was wounded and died the following day. He was buried in Lancashire Landing Cemetery which overlooks the Dardanelle Straits. He was 20.

His elder brother Robert trained as a pilot and gained his Royal Aero Club certificate on 10 May 1916. He was Lieutenant with the Royal Engineers attached to the Royal Flying Corps. Robert went to France on 5 July 1916. In the late morning of 29 August he and his observer Reginald Henry took off from Doulens - their mission was to use their wireless to direct artillery fire on to the ruined village of Thiepval in the Somme. Their plane was attacked by a German Fokker biplane. A British witness saw it dive steeply, probably fatally damaged. It crashed in the British support line, close to the present day Newfoundland Memorial Park. The two men were buried in what is now known as Knightsbridge Cemetery, which was close to the Knightsbridge Barracks Advanced Dressing Station. Robert was 23.

The list of his possessions gives a glimpse of his personality: there were two metric rules, two books entitled “the design of aeroplanes” and “marching or flying by night without a compass”, an automatic pistol, binoculars, and a flute and whistle.

The third brother James was just 19 at the outbreak of war, he had been studying at Pitmans College, possibly to become a journalist. From his attestation papers we know he was 5ft 8 and a half, had good teeth and hearing. For three months he was a Private in the London Scottish and was then gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. After training in England the battalion served in Salonika and Macedonia. James went to Egypt and was back in England by the autumn of 1916. He was then sent to France to join the 12th Argylls. In August 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross.

Two months later during the battle of Passchaendale, his battalion had to attack over ground that was a sea of mud. The Regimental History records: “We had advanced 600 yards. Our losses had been very heavy and many wounded fell into shell-holes and were drowned and never seen again. Among the good fellows lost that day was that great fighting soldier, Lieutenant Burleigh, one of the bravest we have ever had with us and one who seemed to relish fighting. He was largely responsible for deploying his company correctly under the most trying conditions. Though we did not reach our final objective owing to the immense difficulties of keeping direction we inflicted heavy casualties and lessened the distance to the Passchendaele Ridge.”

James was 21. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

The sad end to the story was a small paragraph in The Times of 1 November 1920 entitled “Mrs Bennet Burleigh’s loss” telling how Bertha had lost her handbag which contained photographs of her three dead sons. It read “Mrs Burleigh is particularly anxious to regain the photographs and would be grateful if the finder would return them to her.”

Bertha died in 1936 and is buried with her husband in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Her youngest son, Bertie, served in the Second World War and died in 1963.

Ninety years have passed since the three Clapham Burleigh brothers died, but they have not been forgotten by family members living in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Scotland, England and France.