Henry John Burns was born on 3 July 1896 in Paddington, London, the son of Henry Thomas Burns (1860-1913) and Ada Alice Burns née Carey (1872-1920). The birth of Henry Burns was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1896 in the Paddington registration district. He was baptised on 22 July 1896 at Christ’s Church, Marylebone, London where in the baptismal register his family were shown as living at 7a Star Street, Marylebone and that his father was a cab driver.
In the 1901 census he is shown as aged 4 years, living in one room at 25 Sale Street, Paddington, (now renamed as Sale Place), with his parents and his sister Ellen Ada Burns (1899-1921). His father continued to described as a cab driver.
When the 1911 census was undertaken he was shown as aged 14 years and a Telegraph Messenger in the West London Postal Service, residing in three rooms at 53 Harrow Road, Paddington, with his parents, his sisters: Ellen who was shown as at school and Maud Annie Grace Burns (b.1906), together with a 21-year-old, single, male boarder.. The census confirms that his father was still a cab driver and that his mother had given birth to four children, but that only three were still alive. A further brother, Charles Alfred Burns (1912-2005) was born on 27 October 1912.
On the outbreak of World War One he joined the 1st/8th (City of London) Battalion, The London regiment (Post Office Rifles), service number 1892, and entered France on 18 March 1915. He was killed in action, aged 20 years, during the capture of High Wood during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, on the 15 September 1916. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Pier and Face 9C and 9D of The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Rue de l'Ancre, 80300 Thiepval, France.
On 12 January 1917 his army effects totalling £3-9s-9d were sent to his widowed mother who by then had been remarried to a Leslie Alfred Ashley (1889-1971). She was also sent his £12-0s-0d war gratuity on 4 October 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'BURNS, H. J.' on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on Page 54 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1914-1920 and on the A Street Near You website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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