<
>
Pte
Harry BURGESS
#
9694 Somerset Light Infantry
Harry was born in Shepton Mallet in
Somerset in 1888, to John Henry Burgess, a local bill poster, and his wife Mary
Ann. At the time Harry had an elder sister and brother, and later a younger sister
and brother.
Harry did his schooling in Shepton until
he was about age 12, and for a while was a hand in the local brewery, but when
about 20 found work in the Welsh coal mines, “but hated it and soon came back
home,” and in time became a Brewers Maltster with Shepton’s big Anglo-Bavarian
Brewery.
The Burgess boys’ favourite
watering hole was “The Kings Arms” at the end of their street, and Harry was
closest to his younger brother Willie, but “didn’t always get on” with his older
brother Frank, and once they even had a punchup in the street outside the pub,
and both were arrested and put in the local cells overnight to sober up, but no
charges were laid for either of them, said to be Harry’s “only ever brush with
the law.”
About 1910 oral history has it that Harry’s
brother Willie “went out to buy a pound of salt one day when he was 17 and
never came home”, and joined The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, and with
war on the horizon, in December 1913 Harry joined the Somerset Light Infantry
(1st Battalion), with his brother Frank soon following.
Harry settled into his training, and on 6th
Jan 1914, with war still some 7-8 months away, he was issued with his Army
Bible, and wrote in it - “C Company, 9694 Pte, Harry Burgess, 1st
Somerset L Infy, Goojerat Barracks, Colchester Essex”. (It would survive the
whole of Harry’s war without another mark on it, save for the loss of one blank
page, but what he wanted that for was never said!). Then a few months later he
sent a photo postcard (below) to his brother Willie, then stationed in Ireland,
and wrote on it…
“Bill here is another Potho of me the 2 I
have marked is 2 Wells chaps the Pulled me out of bed of a Sunday afternoon to
have this done what do you think of the Company Pet? From Harry”
It was also in these early days in Essex,
that Harry teamed up with a John Hollick from Birmingham, and soon became good
mates, taking Harry home with him on leave, where he met John’s elder sister
Mary Elizabeth [‘Lizzie’], and is wasn’t long before the two of them “began stepping
out.”
By June 1914, with Archduke Franz
Ferdinand assassinated, and war now inevitable, Harry wanted to get engaged to
Lizzie (then working for the local Anglican minister as a housekeeper), but Lizzie
decided “if they still felt the same when he got back” – everyone still
thinking it would be a short war – they’d do it then. It would be some four and
a half years before they would see each other again.
HARRY’S
WAR
The
following draws on the records of The Somerset
Light Infantry (SLI), The Red Cross, and other sources online...
29/7/1914 – Preliminary mobilisation of the
Regiment ordered, advance party sent to Felixstowe to guard ferries and dig in,
in case of a German raid, rest confined to barracks, kits packed.
4/8/1914 – England declared war on Germany
as a consequence of Germany invading Belgium. Harry’s Regiment ordered to
mobilise.
6th to
16th Aug 1914
– Reservists arriving, training, marching, kit issues, fire drills, inspections.
One SLI soldier writes – “Parade at 8am for a route march, quite a hot one.
Back at about 11.45am, wash and clean rifle. Kit inspection after lunch. Pack
up sea kitbag. Read and talk, bed early.” Another writes “…getting steady pay,
if we go to the front we get £5 Blood Money, the Govt offer you that, at the
same time hoping you don’t live to claim it.”
17/8/1914 – The SLI left Colchester for
Harrow where the rest of the 4th Divn was collecting, camping on the
playing fields of Harrow School.
21/8/1914 – 4th Divn left Harrow
for Southampton (“...breakfast of bully beef and biscuit ...left camp at 6.30pm
and marched to Sudbury Stn. We were a happy crowd and sang at the top of our
voices... could not have been in better spirits if we were all going on leave.
People lined the streets and cheered us on our way... [that night] slept on the
upper deck packed tightly together like a flock of sheep... so crammed on board
we couldn’t get our feet straight...”).
The
Somersets entrained at 7pm and arrived at [Southampton] at 11.30pm, embarked on
the ‘Braemar Castle’ at
midnight.
(This was
the actual day that
Harry’s dad, aged 52, died at home in Shepton Mallet, but when he was advised is uncertain. If it
missed him during the turmoil of embarkation and landing in France, it’s possible
he didn’t get to hear about it for some time.)
22/8/1914 – “Sea smooth and weather
excellent…”, and they disembarked at Le Havre, having waited till near midnight
due to low tides, when “…the French pilot made many bad shots at berthing…”
23/8/1914 – About 2am they marched six miles
“…through town and up a steep hill to rest camp [which was] very dirty and rather
fruity [smelly?] when the sun got up …great welcome from the French people
…giving us flowers …”
Then it was back to the station in the
evening, and “…the Colonel read to us the King’s message to his troops also telling
us that not many hours distant we should be facing the enemy [and we] cheered
and the noise frightened the Colonel’s horse which reared up and threw him…”
The troops then re-boarded the trains “…
forty men to a wagon which does not give much room… men packed in [open?] cattle
trucks but made the best of it, imitating the bellowing and bleating of oxen
and sheep…”
24/8/1914 – Finally away about 2am “…not
much prospect of getting any sleep with someone’s boots in my face… 20 mins
rest at Rouen… coffee and a nip of brandy… bully beef and biscuits … [after] 17
hours crammed in cattle trucks we marched 8 miles to a village… slept the night
in a shed …our ‘leave atmosphere’ has evaporated [!!] but we are all very
chirpy. What is happening? No one had any idea!”
(The
bigger situation on Aug 24th was that, after holding the Germans at
Mons, the British Expeditionary Force (the BEF, the “Contemptible Little Army”
according to the Kaiser) and the French were falling back towards Paris at the
mercy of artillery and cavalry, and the commanders decided to make a stand in
the Le Cateau area to enable them to regroup. At this time the 4th
Divn (inc the SLI) was in process of arriving from Le Havre, and had begun
deploying, coming into contact with the enemy, and they had no choice but to
make a stand, even though not fully assembled, lacking cavalry, ambulances,
engineers, heavy artillery, and the ammunition train.)
25/8/1914 – This day, and the following day
when Harry appears to have been wounded, the SLI was in the thick of this
battle around Le Cateau, trying to hold the line so that other forces could re-group
as a consequence of the overall `Retreat From Mons’, but it’s unclear from the reports
and diaries who was specifically where. “A midday thunderstorm made the ground
and trenches boggy... a trail of refugees from the towns... some German shelling,
everywhere digging in, Somersets stripped to the waist, steam rising, putting
up barb wire defences.”
26/8/1914 – Before dawn “...rifle,
machinegun, and shellfire… the Rifle Brigade [and the] Somersets were pushed
forward to the southern end of Beauvois
[2kms NW of Caudry] to hold the enemy… while the other two Battalions moved
south… men rather nervous at this first experience of shrapnel fire…”
Sections of the SLI (inc Harry’s ‘C’
Company under Major Thoyts) then occupied “...the eastern end of the quarries
[near La Carriere]… German infantry and machineguns advanced to close range…
Huns started a systematic traversing fire… three shells burst over us in quick
succession and hit three men and alarmed the rest horribly…”
Some
units then advanced “...in extended order in spite of the heavy machinegun
fire, up a slope [to a] hedge where we lay down and opened fire on the
advancing Germans… as taught on the ranges… only difference was now we had
something alive to fire at… strangely enough none of us minded killing another
human being… we too were taking casualties, men being killed right and left of
me…”
“…it
was shocking to hear and see the shells bursting all around us. My God, we
could see thousands of Germans swarming out of a wood… in front about a
thousand yards ahead… started dropping them like wheat before the scythe but
still they came… but it was not the thousands of infantry that were doing the
damage, it was the shrapnel. They had the range splendidly… shells bursting all
around us and expecting to get your head blown off at any minute.”
“The
Somersets withstood the onslaught… but lost heavily… our chaps kept dropping
and some of the sights were awful… a youngster saying to me `I don’t think the
beggars could hit me if they tried’ and at that instant a shell caught him in
the forehead and his head was shattered.”
Then nearby “…they suddenly opened up a heavy
shrapnel fire on us with perfect range. A small part of our men got up and ran
but I am sorry to say were mostly knocked out. Their attitudes struck us as
grotesque but [their] moaning and cries of pain were terrible as we could do
nothing for them except bandage a few and leave them.”
Harry’s ‘C’ Company was pulled back and it
and the rest of the Brigade took up position along the Carriere Ridge, then
just after midday “…nobody left on our left flank and our supports gone… we
started to crawl back the 50 yards to the old quarry… of the 49 that I took
into action I had only 12 [able bodied?] left, 37 killed or wounded, so no
disgrace in retiring.”
At
about 3pm “…it was seen that to hold the Carriere position any longer would
lead to the Brigade being taken [from behind]… instructions to retire to Ligny [3kms SW of Caudry]… Somersets
to the east of the village… shrapnel fire on our troops was very severe… took
up defences… attacked by German infantry twice but on each occasion was
repulsed with heavy loss.”
“Casualties were collected and placed in
the church. Unfortunately the Divisional Field Ambulances… had been held back
by GHQ and were at St Quentin. The wounded could not be evacuated, although
Capt Holden… managed to collect a few carts in which he placed some of the worst
cases and despatched then southwards towards St Quentin. For some inexplicable
reason these carts were turned back to Ligny under the direction of a staff
officer…”
“There
was not a man in my section hit till about five o’clock, when the Germans
opened upon us with their machineguns. This was about the time when Major Thoyts
was severely wounded by a shell, killing his horse outright…”.
Then, at about 6.30pm the Germans “…made
another attack with their machineguns, and at this moment they swept the whole
lot of us out… I was wounded in both legs, twice in the left arm, and clean
through the mouth which left me helpless on the ground… unable to move. Just
getting dark and the Germans came through us and handled us very rough. Then a
German officer spoke to me in good English and said `You are a prisoner in our
hands [and we will] send you back to hospital, where you will be treated and
then sent to Germany.”
(Major Francis Thoyts died the
same day of his wounds and is buried in a War Cemetery in France.)
This
above date is the one that Lizzie always said Harry was wounded in the hip in
Belgium from machinegun fire and taken POW. As she had a very reliable memory
for a whole host of dates of other things, it has to be presumed that this was
correct, which would possibly make the above segment the very action and
circumstances in which Harry was captured, as the commanding officer of ‘C’
Company was Major Thoyts.
While he spoke little of his war, Harry always
said he was “...fixed up by a German doctor, who was very good, then taken to
Cassel POW camp in Germany, and later transferred to Baden POW camp...”, where
he spent the rest of the war.
12/10/1914 – German POW records show 9694 Harry Burgess,
Pte, Somerset Light Inf, ‘C’ Coy, born 11/5/88 Shepton Mallett Eng, captured on 26/8/14 “Camtrai” (should this be
“Cambrai”, the place where they were marched to on Aug 26, before being
trucked away on Aug 28th).
12/10/1914 – Another of Harry’s POW cards shows this date,
and the words “Bethuicotes”(?), “Res.Laz.Cassel”, “Abt.Burgerschule” (means
‘citizen school’?), “Philosopheweg” (philosophy?), and “u.Tischbeinstr(asse)”,
(which is a main road in the centre of Kassel).
9/11/1914 – Another card shows what looks
like his entry into (translated) Detention Camp “Cassel”, captured “Harcourt”,
and “Neiderzwehren”.
“Neiderzwehren”
is a small town in Germany notable for its First World War prisoner-of-war
camp. The town lies between Kassel city centre and Oberzwehren. The camp was
begun around December 1914 and held British and French prisoners captured on
the western front. Early in 1915 Russian prisoners from the eastern front also
arrived with numbers peaking at around 20,000. The German staff controlling
this number probably totalled around 150 men. The camp operated beyond the
armistice of November 1918 and was only finally closed in the summer of 1919.
These
camps were “Mannschaftslager”, that is “typical soldiers camp”, made up of
wooden barrack huts 10m wide and 50m long, covered with tar on the outside.
Each hut held around 250 prisoners. A central corridor provided access on each
side to bunk beds, with straw- or sawdust-filled palliasses. Furniture was kept
to a minimum, and generally limited to a table, chairs or benches and a stove.
The camps also included barracks for guards, a
Kantine (cafeteria) where prisoners could sometimes buy small luxuries and supplementary
food, a parcels office, a guardhouse, and kitchens. Some camps had additional
amenities, including sanitary facilities, or cultural facilities such as a
library, a theatre/concert hall, or a space for worship.
All around
the camp, there was barbed wire three metres high; the wires were spaced
fifteen centimetres apart, a wooden post every three metres, and across other
barbed wires every fifty centimetres, forming a mesh. Prisoners on work details
often spent longer or shorter periods of time away from their parent camp:
those engaged in agriculture, for example, might be housed in village assembly
halls.
11/11/1918 – The war finally ended, and Harry
was repatriated from Germany.
The
story in the family (told by Harry’s daughter Dorothy in 2018), was that Harry said
that one morning him and a mate noticed that there didn’t seem to be any
guards, so they took a chance and escaped by swimming the nearby river, only to
be told that the war was over! So they swam back again! (Presumably gaining
nothing except getting extremely cold and wet!)
But the “Birmingham Gazette” of 3rd Jan
1919, apparently interviewed Harry and his brother-in-law John (who’d been in
different POW camps to Harry), presumably on their very first leave on return,
but after being processed at the Taunton Barracks.
The boys spoke of their experiences, but Harry’s
comment about his ‘escape’ on the end, while essentially the same, puts a
slightly different slant on it...
<
>
It was a strange turn of the fortunes of war
which resulted in British soldiers being rendered ‘hors de combat’ in the very
earliest hours of the fighting in August 1914.
Two of these men, Pte J. T. Hollick and Pte
H. Burgess, of the Somerset Light Infantry, are spending a well earned furlough
at the home of the former, 646 Washwood Heath Rd, Ward End, after four years
and four months of life in German prison camps.
Happily both look remarkably well in health,
but a photo of Pte Hollick taken in Germany tells a significant story of scant
and unwholesome rations. Disembarking at Le Havre on 22 August 1914, the
Somersets went into action on the morning of the 26th, and by four o’clock of
that day Ptes Hollick and Burgess, who had been close friends from the time of
their enlistment eight months previously, were wounded. They were taken
prisoner and sent to different camps, and did not meet again until their
release from captivity.
“When I was captured”, Pte Burgess said, “I
was given two crutches and had to walk 70 miles. Afterwards I lay in six inches
of water in a transport wagon for four hours. I was kicked in the ribs and hit
in the back with a stick. Upon arriving at Cassel a number of us were exhibited
around the town.
“We slept like pigs and we lived like pigs.
We were full of vermin, and hundreds of men died of disease and brutality of
all kinds.” He remembered distinctly the visit of Mt Gerard, the American
Ambassador, to the camp, and said that the conditions afterwards improved
somewhat.
Pte Burgess had not heard of the armistice
when he escaped from Heuberg on 13 November, and was overjoyed to learn of it
when he reached Strassburg three days later. [Strasbourg is about 100kms from
Heuberg!]
Privates Hollick and Burgess will rejoin
their regiments on 27 February.
<
>
Harry remained in the Regular Army for
a while, and on Xmas Eve 1919 he married Lizzie Hollick in Birmingham, with his
two new brothers-in-law John and Robert Hollick in attendance, and all in
uniform.
Post war? - after a stint in Ireland, and
with three youngsters in tow, Harry and Lizzie emigrated to South Australia,
and lived out their days in the suburbs of Adelaide. (But not wanting to miss
out on the action Harry did a three year spell in the AIF in WW2! – but that’s
another story).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>