Current Information:

Age-26

44, Oxberry Avenue, Fulham

Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy, France

The First World War saw an enormous growth in the size of the British army, not just in the infantry and artillery but also in all of the other branches including the Royal Engineers, without whom the war could not have been fought. The engineers were responsible for the maintenance of all the supply routes to the front line including roads, bridges, canals, railways. They looked after the telephones and the embryonic wireless system and they made sure that there was a water supply. They designed and built the fortifications both in the front line and further back, including gun emplacements and they were responsible for all tunnelling and mining work. Each division usually had three Field Companies attached to them and when an attack went in so did the engineers to help consolidate any gains made.

The 4th (London) Field Company of the Royal Engineers (later renamed the 518th Field Company) were part of 47th Division which arrived in France in March, 1915 and remained on the Western Front throughout the war. On 2nd April William Burns was killed, most likely by shell fire, while working at Givenchy, near Festubert, in France