Private Frederick Cecil Edward Burton
9th (Service Battalion), Devonshire Regiment
Died of wounds
Date of Birth: 13th August 1898
Place of Birth: Torquay, Devon
Date of Death: 18th October 1915 aged 17
Buried: Etaples Military Cemetery, France, Remembered on remembered on the Barry Memorial Hall, Barry, South Glamorgan
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Frederick Cecil Edward Burton was born on 13th August 1898 and baptised (Anglican) on 2nd October 1898 in Torquay, Tormoham, Devon.
His father was a mariner, Frederick John Burton (1859-1917) who was born in Teignmouth, and his mother was Fanny Burton née Lane (1865-1948), she was born in Lanteglos, Cornwall.
Frederick John and Fanny were married in 1887 and their marriage was registered in Newton Abbot, Devon.
In 1901, the family were living at 39 Trinity Street, Cardiff. Frederick, junior, has a sister Dorothy who is six years older.
Ann Lane, his father's sister in law, is also staying with the family.
1911, the family have moved to 11, Wenvoe Terrace, Barry, Glamorgan, (CF62 7ES). The census does not show the father, Frederick John.
Devonshire Regiment
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Frederick Cecil Edward enlisted at Barry, Glamorgan and joined the Devonshire Regiment, 9th (Service) Battalion. He died from his wounds on 18th October 1915. His service number was 12952.
Frederick Cecil Edward Burton is remembered on the Barry Memorial Hall, (WMR 6633) Barry, South Glamorgan.
Frederick's father, Frederick John Burton also died in WW1, he was a Steward in the Merchant Navy, serving on the SS Elsiston which was torpedoed by Austro-Hungarian submarine U14 on 19 October, 1917, approximately 150 miles from Malta.
The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment
Devonshire Regiment
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The 8th and 9th Battalions of the Devonshire Regiment were formed in 1914 from war-time volunteers.
After very little training they landed at Le Havre in France on the 28th July, 1915 and moved to the Front in August 1915.
Le Havre is a port in France which during the First World War was used as a base for storage and as a transport hub . 1.9 million British soldiers passed through Le Havre en route to the Western Front which was further North.
British soldiers arrive in Le Havre, France. © IWM (Q 51472)
The men had only a very brief experience of trench warfare when on the 25th September 1915, the British Army launched a massed attack against the German defences, this was later to be known as the Battle of Loos.
At the Battle of Loos both sides used poison gas as a weapon.
Men preparing for a gas attack © IWM (Q 51650)
This was the first time that the British used poison gas.
After they released the gas the wind changed and a green blanket of gas, dust and smoke as high as a two-storey house covered some of the British troops, it was very difficult to see anything, some men had terrible difficulty breathing and others died later because of the damaging effects of the gas.
'The gas hung in a thick pall over everything, and it was impossible to see more than ten yards. In vain I looked for my landmarks in the German line, to guide me to the right spot, but I could not see through the gas.'
Account by George Wilfred Smith, 2nd The Leicestershire Regiment, to his fiancée.
Before the men left the safety of their trenches and went 'over the top' to capture the enemy positions the Gunners would often fire a huge artillery barrage to shatter the enemy's barbed wire and other defences and kill defending troops.
Soldiers leaving a sap trench © IWM (Q 5100)
German barbed wire entanglement © IWM (Q 4593)
In this battle the artillery barrage had not cleared all the barbed wire, so the Devons had to cut their way through whilst the Germans fired machine-guns at them.
The 8th and 9th Devons were battalions with 1000 men in each unit. In a single day they had more than 1000 casualities and 500 men died or went missing.
In the First World War six million men went missing and were never found, their bodies were lost in the mud. Sometimes bodies would be found as new trenches were dug.
The land had been heavily wooded before the war began.
British dead in front of a captured German trench; near Loos, 30th September, 1915 © IWM (Q 28980)
Casualties at the Battle of Loos on the 25th September 1915 were the worst in a single day for the British army, with some 8,500 dead.
The Battle of Loos lasted from 25th September to 15th October, 1915.
Private Frederick Cecil Edward Burton was wounded at the battle of Loos, he died of those wounds on 18th October 1915, he was 17 years old.
