The February auction features a group of gallantry medals, correspondence and documents relating to the World War I career of Charles Edward Burley. Here we have compiled his World War I career as glimpsed intermittently through this material.
In a postcard dated 6th May 1921 from the Royal Engineers Record Office, Chatham, CE Burley is informed that his 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal are available to be sent to his home address. Although World War I peace was officially declared with the Peace of Versailles, June 1919, and fighting ceased in November 1918, there were severe delays in the delivery of medals – approximately 5m War veterans received awards and the rims of British War Medals and Victory Medals were impressed with the name, rank and unit of the recipient, a time-consuming task.
The 1914 Star recognised the opening campaign of the War on the Western Front, and was awarded to British forces who had served ‘under fire’ in either France or Belgium between 5th August and midnight on 22nd/23rd November 1914. The 1914 Star was always awarded in conjunction with the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, as seen in the 1921 postcard. At this time Burley was fighting with the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, and his official regimental career had commenced in October 1914, according to his Certificate of Employment during the War, issued early 1919. The same document states that his profession was ‘Electrician’ before enlistment although it would appear that he was probably involved with the Royal Engineers Signal Service from late 1908, the year the Service was established in order to centralise the facilitation of Army communications which replaced individual unit signalling. The 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, landed at Le Havre in early November 1914 and provided reinforcements for the British Expeditionary Forces, they were soon positioned on the Western Front and moved into the Ypres sector. However, none of our documents tell us about Burley’s activities or his location at this time.
Some six months later, in May 1915, Burley was engaged in the Battle of Aubers Ridge on the Western Front, part of the British contribution to the Second Battle of Artois, a Franco-British offensive intended to exploit the German division of troops on the Eastern front, and he was still serving in the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. The ‘Gallantry in Action’ form completed by Burley himself, probably soon afterwards as he states he is 25 years old on 23 August 1915 (he was born in 1890), is the most informative of the documents included in the lot. It sets out the ‘particulars of the deed…for which a VC, DSO, DCM or MC has been awarded’, in Burley’s case a DCM. The award was established in 1854, the second highest gallantry award after the Victoria Cross and awarded to non-commissioned officers. This form was to be returned to the publisher Walter Hutchinson who in an undated letter, also included in the lot, states that he is proposing to ‘give an authentic account of the most important individual acts of bravery in the Great War…’ to appear in a publication which will stir ‘the patriotic feelings of the people and so help Recruiting throughout the Empire’.
On 9 May 1915, in dull daylight conditions, Burley had been some 150-200 yards from trenches, in the open, running towards telephone wires in order to locate and repair breakages in three or four places caused by enemy shell fire. Specifically, the DCM was awarded as Burley fixed these wires whilst under heavy shell and rifle fire, the German trenches located some 200 yards away. He was not carrying a rifle or any other weapon and he was not injured. The Corporal in charge had asked for two men to repair these wires and along with another Burley ‘offered to go…’, and they ‘could be Plainly seen by the enemy after leaving the trench because the enemy trench was built on higher ground’. He returned safely, and ‘repeatedly repaired the same lines all day, until being relieved next morning’.
The Military Medal, founded in March 1916 and backdated to 1914 for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire or in battle during World War I, was also awarded to Burley; it was the equivalent of the Military Cross for lower ranks.
In his August 1915 ‘Gallantry in Action’ form Burley states that now he is with the 8th Division Signal Company, Royal Engineers, and a slip of paper, also part of the lot, dated 16th February 1916, records this too. The note grants Burley a week’s leave, after serving 6 months without a break, and gives instruction to return by train from Victoria at 9.15am on 25th February. His rank is ‘Pioneer’, denoting a soldier employed in engineering and construction tasks and similar to that of sapper by which Burley is known in many of these documents.
Also included is a detailed communications map, not dated, but annotated top left, ‘Burley’, in pencil, and the only clue as to the map’s significance is ‘Farm du Mouquet’, marked top right. The Battle of Mouquet Farm (July – September 1916) took place during the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). However, although the 8th Division Signal Company was heavily engaged in various battles during the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Mouquet Farm was not one of these. Mouquet Farm was an intense skirmish, the area heavily fortified by the Germans with deep, underground tunnels and the skilled work of the sappers in building new trenches and securing positions was constantly in demand for the duration of the encounter. It is known that assistance from other units was required and Burley could very well have been assigned along with others of his rank.
A Postkarte sent by Burley from Friedrichsfeld, is marked Kriegsgefangenensendung, or Prisoner of War mail, and on the reverse, dated 3 November 1918, Burley writes to his mother, he is curious as to what she will send him and says, ‘if you have put plenty of Cigarettes in, I think it will be allright love from Ted’. It is likely that Burley was taken prisoner during the German Spring Offensive, March – July 1918, as the 8th Division Signal Company was involved from the outset. The POW record for Lance Corporal Burley, held by the International Commission of the Red Cross, is dated 27.5.18. If this is his date of capture then Burley was probably involved with the Third Battle of the Aisne (27 May – 6 June 1918). On 27th May 17 Stormtrooper Divisions attacked Allied forces on a 25-mile front and pushed their divisions back to the strategic River Vesle in under six hours. The Germans got close to Paris but progress stalled in early June due to supply issues and increasing resistance. Massive casualties were sustained on both sides, and the Battle of Aisne was the last engagement of the Offensive before American forces arrived in July 1918, thereafter the tide turned against the German forces for good.
Friedrichsfeld was located north of Cologne, and could hold 35,000 prisoners, the first of whom in 1914 constructed the camp. It was regarded as well organised, prisoners could receive post and later parcels, but medical care was rudimentary and towards the end of the war food was in short supply. In October 1918 the camp was overflowing with prisoners, labour camps located in mining and heavy industry sites in the Ruhr area were also used. Burley was probably repatriated soon after sending his postcard as records indicate that by late 1918 the majority of Friedrichsfeld’s prisoners had departed.
We know that on demobilisation, noted in a form dated 10th March 1919, that Burley was transferred to a reserve army unit and his health was noted as ‘A’. In April 1921, in a Soldier’s Service and Pay Book, Burley’s entry says that he belongs to the No. 1 Special Construction Company, Royal Corp of Signals, his next of kin is noted as his father, his terms of service are 7/5 (seven shillings and five pence) and the entry is dated 30th April, Edinburgh Castle. Although Burley’s marital status is stated as ‘single’ here, another document titled ‘Memorandum’, dated 22nd April 1921, sent from the Regimental Paymaster, Chatham, is addressed to Mrs Burley, 15 Kings Dyke, Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire. An allowance for Mrs Burley and her child is detailed and the document is headed with Burley’s name and regimental number. Such payments were typically made to the wives of men serving in the army, although combat had ceased; an ‘allotment’ was deducted from the soldier’s own pay which was supplemented by a sum from the government.
The Burley story ends, for us, with an undated cutting from an unnamed newspaper: a letter to the Editor from the Honorary Secretary of the Joint Committee of British Legion Workers’ Union, Whittlesey Local Labour Party. It is an appeal to the Board of Guardians Whittlesey in reference to the relief granted to the widow of a war hero who received the DCM and MM. The author writes, ‘Alas, a heroe’s [sic] health was impaired. Unfortunately he contracted pneumonia, from which he passed away…’. The hero left two children aged two and three years old respectively and the sum allocated to Mrs Burley was insufficient to support just one child in the ‘institution’. Given the plea to the Board of Guardians the ‘institution’ would be the Whittlesey Poor Law Institution, built in 1875, the likely home of the Burley family. Life in workhouses was uncomfortable and strict, and it is galling to think that the precariousness of the family’s daily existence was coupled with the painful loss of a father and husband who had so bravely served his country.