STOKE ST MARY AND DISTRICT HISTORY GROUP
WILLIAM BURT
William Burt was born in West Hatch on 17 Feb 1880 and baptized at St Andrews Church on 18 Apr 1880. He was the eldest boy of seven children, Georgina, William, Hannah, Thomas, George, Sarah Ann, and Florence. The first three, Georgina, William and Hannah were born in West Hatch and the rest were born and baptized in Stoke St Mary. They were living in Stoke from approximately 1885.
His parents were Thomas and Ellen nee Hooper who married 5 Oct 1876 in West Hatch. His paternal grandparents were George Burt and Eliza nee Channing, who married in Thurlbear in 1851. [His grandfather married a second time, conveniently to another Eliza Channing from Thurlbear in 1875].
By 1901 William’s father, Thomas, had died and Ellen was on her own with the children. William was a coal haulier, Thomas was a quarry labourer and George was a Mason’s boy.
William married Alice Mary Dyer in Stoke St Mary on the 4th April 1904. They had three children,
William Charles, christened on 26 Feb 1905,
George Frederick, born 10 Jan 1907 and
Roderick Herbert, christened 02 August 1908,
Sadly Roderick died 4 months later and William’s wife Alice died, aged 32 in March 1909 and is buried at West Hatch.
William Burt and one of his sons
There is another, taken not long before he died, showed him with one of his two young sons. The inscription of the back of the photograph recorded that he died as a result of the explosion of a shell on the Hindenburg Line. This information would appear to be approximately correct, though the Battles of the Hindenburg line didn’t take place till September. The Hindenburg Line passed just east of Arras.
In 1911 William a widower, was lodging together with his brother George at the house of his brother in law, Fred Challice. William was working at the lime quarry and George was a coal [possibly the wrong way round if you look at the 1901 census when their occupations were the other way round]. One son, William, was living with his grandmother Ellen in Stoke. Thomas, and Georgina were also there. His other son, George was with his maternal grandparents in West Monkton.
There is no record of when William joined up but it is recorded that he enlisted in Taunton. He served with the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry on the Western Front. He was also at some point in the West Somerset Yeomanry.
William served on the Western Front. On his last leave relatives remember him saying that he thought he was unlikely to survive because “he had volunteered for a dangerous mission so the rest of his company could get through”. There is no record of this “mission” in the war diaries and we have no idea when it might have taken place.
World War I
Corporal William Burt’s name as it appears on the back wall of the cemetry at Vis en Artois.
It appears he joined the 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry and served in France. There is some doubt about his actual date of death. The original written list states he died on 3 July 1916 but the typed list puts his date of death of 3 August 1916, and that’s the date on his tomb stone.
However when consulting the 7th Battalion War Diaries it is clear that he died on 3 August 1916, the 3rd July having been described as a “quiet day”.
Just to add to the confusion, the War Diaries state that two soldiers were killed, and a Sgt injuried on 3 August. The cemetery records show that a Lc Cpl Norris was killed on 3 August, but his first record puts him as serving with the KSLI, [Kings Shropshire Light Infantry] but this was changed to SLI on the typed list. The SLI were possibly serving next to the Shropshires as there are also 2 other Shropshires killed on the 3rd August. Neither Burt or Norris appear on the 7th Battalion list of wounded/dead [Somerset Archives]
William Burt had a first cousin, also called William. His full name was William Charles Burt and he was born in West Hatch/Thornfalcon
WILLIAM CHARLES BURT