Myles Burton

Myles Burton. 2701 Pte. "B" Coy. 1/4th Bn, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment (KORLR), KIA 14th August 1915, Aveluy, France, age 24 yrs.

In April 1915 the 1/4th King's Own, as part of the North Lancs Brigade (retitled 154th Bde), joined the 51st (Highland) Division at Bedford. In January 1916 they returned to the 55th (West Lancs.) Division,164th Bde.

The Battalion landed at Boulogne on a wet May night. Their first action was at Festubert, in June, where another local man, Lt. G.B. Bigland was killed. A month later the 51st Division extended the right of the British line. They made up part of Third Army, specially formed to take over from the French. This was a relatively quiet area, to be etched in British memory the following summer as The Somme.

The King's Own, "marched away from the leafy arches of Mericourt, that seemed to invite the tired traveller to revel in their coolness. New vistas opened out before us. On our right hand a sugar refinery shot its well-known ugly chimney to the skies. On our left hand a roadside shrine seemed to invite a moment's meditation. But there, in front, joy to our hearts, lay the broad rolling uplands, topped with yellowing corn, that went before the breeze in glistening waves.......

"......The Battalion went into billets at the quaint and attractive little village of Bouzincourt......Dinner had been prepared en route in the travelling kitchens, and was served immediately on settling down. Interest was languid and appetites mechanical, and, due to the incessant movement and cramped travelling of the past thirty-six hours, the troops sank into oblivion in this restful arcadia.

"It is usually the unexpected that happens. Instead of going into the trenches straightaway day succeeded day in peaceful routine work, and this period in France approximated more closely to a rest than any we had yet experienced.

By this very immunity from trench cares we missed what must have been a most interesting experience-that of taking over the trenches from the French army, who were now released for service elsewhere. This engaging duty fell to the 8th Liverpools, who took over the new sector on August 1st.

"On August 3rd the commanding officer and two officers visited the trenches, which were to the east of Aveluy, a village three or four kilometres to the east of Bouzincourt, a direct road over the ridge connecting the two. This road, the top and eastern slope of which was in view of the enemy, was impracticable in daylight. A wide detour had therefore to be made via Engelbelmer and Albert. On approaching the latter place a first view was obtained of the damaged campanile of the church-the Eglise Notre Dame de Brebières-a pitiful sight and one to linger in the memory. The spectacle of the beautiful gilded statue of the Mother and Child hanging perilously head downward, through the vile attentions of the Hun, was moving in the extreme..........

"......we come to the entrance of the communication trench, which it was well to use.

"The first effect of these remarkable trenches was speechless amazement. These were trenches such as we had never experienced hitherto. In the north we had been accustomed to sandbagged breastworks; but here the trenches were deep and wound serpent-wise, in a fashion that left the stranger utterly bewildered. It was a labyrinthine system, constructed according to the suggestion of the natural contours, and not following any stereotyped plan, as at the Quinque Rue......

"Our new trenches, designated "F.1" sub-sector, spread fanwise over a saddle of rising ground, disappearing on the northern extremity into Authuille Wood, which was of considerable size......The Battalion frontage was extensive, approximating a mile in length. From its highest point, opposite Ovillers, a magnificent enfilading view disclosed the wreckage of La Boisselle, separated by a wicked little gut of very narrow width, known as Sausage Valley, from the divisional trenches further on our right, which were entrusted to our Highland comrades.....

"...On the 7th August, at 9 p.m., the Battalion marched over the ridge by companies to take over trenches from the 8th Liverpools, and so remained without a break for three weeks-eloquent testimony to their habitableness. From the first things were comparatively quiet, and we had to contend with spasmodic shelling. On the 10th "C" and "D" Companies, on the left, were bombarded during the morning. The bombardment was intermittent, but "D" Company had an unpleasant time from 12 noon to 12.30 and had one casualty. On the 14th. some little shelling occurred, and Private Burton, of "B" Company, was killed...."(4th Bn. King's Own in the Great War. Wadham & Crossley).

A captured German trench in Mash Valley, near La Boisselle. The ground rises toward the ruins of Ovillers. September 1916. (Imperial War Museum: Q 58194)

A different version of events appeared in the Parish Magazine, "He was most unselfishly doing another man's work in taking an extra turn as "look out man", when a bullet penetrated the breastwork of the trench and he was shot in the heart. His brother, Tom Burton, who is also in the 4th King's Own, was close to him, and was able to see the reverent burial in the little cemetery near by, but there are few who will be more missed by their friends than Myles Burton, well described as "the merriest, brightest lad in Cartmel". To his father and mother who have given their all to the service of their country, for they have no other sons living except these two we offer our deepest sympathy; and while Myles follows his other brother Herbert to that Land of Glory from which no traveller can ever wish to return, we will see that his memory, like that of Leonard Lancaster, shall not be allowed to die in Cartmel."

I suspect that the first version is correct. The Somme trenches were very deep and did not (see above) have sandbagged breastwork. It is highly unlikely that a soldier would expose enough of his body to be shot in the heart. It was less upsetting for grieving parents to be told of a quick death from a bullet in the heart, than to be told their son had been shattered by a shell.

Mylie was the first British casualty to be buried in Aveluy Communal Cemetery Extension, Row B, Grave 10.

A memorial service to Myles and Leonard Lancaster (q.v.) was held on All Saints' Day 1915 and was attended by 200 to 300 people. The "Last Post" was played by Bugler Irwin of 4/KORLR from the chancel steps. Leonard Lancaster's art studentship medal, and some of Myles' uniform buttons were laid in the shape of a cross on the Union Jack placed on a bier before the Sanctuary, "...simple personal relics which told their own story of careers given up and lives laid down for God and Country."

The Burton Family Grave in Cartmel Cemetery.

While looking through the "Barrow News" microfilms in the library, I discovered the following in the "In Memoriam" section of 10 August 1918:

"BURTON-In unfading and loving memory of Private Myles (Mylie) Burton,

King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, who was killed in action in France on

August 14th, 1915, aged 24 years, "Like ivy on a withered oak, When other

things decay, Our love for him will still keep green And never fade away."

From father and mother, The Flags, Cartmel.