World War One

Grandad joined the 1st East Riding Field Coy, this became the 529th Field Coy of the Royal Engineers in June 1915, part of the 3rd Division.
During the battle of Arras, which began on 9th April 1917, the 3rd Division became part of the VI Corps, Third Army.
From the postcards my mother received from France he was obviously there for some time.
In my mothers possessions we found a letter to Florrie from the Records Office, this said that they had been informed by the War Office that Frederick Burden had been killed in action on 18th June 1917.
A search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site revealed that Frederick's name was in Bay1 of the Arras Memorial.
The memorial lists 35,000 servicemen who died between spring 1916 and August 1918 who have no known graves.

The picture shows grandad(seated) with fellow soldier
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The picture above shows grandad(seated) with fellow soldier

Whilst talking to aunty Vera she mentioned that she had the medallion presented to the family after the war. This was known as a Death Penny and came with a note saying "I join with my grateful people in sending you this memorial of a brave life given for others in the Great War.
George R J."

Unfortunately the note was destroyed by fire in World War Two.

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Notification of death sent to Florance at the end of August.

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We visited the Royal Engineers Archives and Museum in Gillingham, Kent.
There we where extremely lucky to find a copy of a letter detailing exactly where and what grandad was doing at the time of his death.
The 529th were sent into Hook trench in order to do some construction work, they came under heavy attack from German Troops. 12 NCO's and sappers where killed and 19 NCO's and sappers where wounded. Grandad was one of those killed.

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