BURNS William Beaumont

William Beaumont Burns was born on 29th August 1883 at Rugeley, Staffordshire, the son of John B. and Jessie Burns.  He was one of at least 10 children.  He was a first team member for Worcestershire County Cricket Club from 1903 – 1913 and Marylebone Cricket Club from 1906/07 – 1912.

William went to Canada in 1913 where he enlisted shortly after the outbreak of the war in the Canadian Infantry in Valcartier, Quebec, Canada on 21st September 1914.  On his attestation form he gave his profession as a foundry worker and his next of kin as his sister, Mrs Edwards, who resided in South Wales.  William was 5ft 10ins tall with blue eyes, dark brown hair and a fair complexion.  Further details on his attestation paper state that he had extensive scaring with loss of hair on the left side of his scalp and a small scar between the 1st and 2nd finger of his left hand.  William was discharged from the Canadian forces at Shorncliffe, Kent on 25th August 1915 having obtained a commission in the 5th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

National Archives of Canada Reference: RG150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1309 – 4.

On the 7th and 8th July the drizzle developed into heavy rain, converting the trenches into troughs of knee-deep mud.  At about 2 p.m. the enemy were heavily reinforced and commenced a powerful attack.  The German artillery pounded the ruins held by the Worcestershire, and strong bombing parties of the enemy worked down from the higher ground.  A desperate struggle raged around the ruins of the church, where a party of the Worcestershire, inspired by two brave subalterns, 2nd Lieutenant A.W. Isaac and 2nd Lieutenant W.B. Burns, fought on until all were overwhelmed.

Source for additional information: The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War by Captain H. FitzM. Stacke of the Regiment, 1928.

King’s School, Ely, Cambridgeshire:
William Beaumont Burns was son of J.B. Burns of Rugely, Staffordshire, where he was born on 29th August 1883.  He was preceded at the School by his elder brother J.N. Burns, born 18th November 1880.  The eldest son was apparently educated elsewhere.

William was admitted as a boarder in January 1898, and left in July 1901.  He was an all-round sportsman, playing for the school at cricket 1898-1901, initially under his brother’s captaincy, and at soccer 1898-1901, initially as a back and then as centre forward and captain.  He also rowed stroke in the School boat, won the fives tournament in 1900, and in April 1901 won the Champion Cup at the School sports.  He could throw a cricket ball nearly 100 yards, and with deadly accuracy.  It is told that he once felled the verger, Mr Hill, in his bedroom in the Porta with a lump of soap hurled from the dormitory in the Hereward building across the road.

In December 1898 he won a class prize for maths, but does not otherwise figure as a scholar.  He was one of six boys noted as leavers in the December 1901 edition of the School magazine, the Elean, which mourned his leaving: ‘a good football player and a brilliant cricketer’.

After leaving School he played cricket first for Staffordshire as his brothers did and then for Worcestershire 1904-1913.  In 1906-7 he was a member of the MCC team which toured New Zealand.  He retired from Worcestershire in 1913 and emigrated to Canada.  By January 1915 he was serving as a private in the Canadian Contingent.  He afterwards joined the Worcestershire Regiment, and rose to the rank of lieutenant before his death on 8th July 1916 at Contalmaison.

He is one of 24 Old Eleans who lost their lives in the First World War, and are commemorated on the School War Memorial.  When in 1924 houses were created at the School for sports purposes they were named after four war heroes, one of them Burns.

A photograph of Second Lieutenant W.B. Burns can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 22nd July 1916, available at Worcestershire Archives.

William Burns has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Thiepval Memorial.