William Cecil Burton

Census Address: 5 Belton Street
Place of Birth: Stamford
Date of Birth: 1899
Enlistment Address: --
Regiment: West Riding Reg, York and Lancaster Regiment
Service Numbers: 27623/46091,
Place of Death: --
Date Died: --
Belton Street, Stamford

  8th December 2015

William Cecil Burton

William was born in 1899 in Stamford. He was the eldest son of John and Martha (nee Peck) Burton. His father was a painter/paperhanger. He had 3 younger brothers. In 1901 they lived in Protection Place (off Scotgate – now demolished). By 1911 they had moved to 5 Belton Street.
When he enlisted on the 24th January 1917 his address was still 5 Belton Street and he was employed as a cycle repairer.

Private William Burton (Reg. No. 27623/46091) joined the West Riding Regiment. On 14th May 1917 he was mobilised to serve in the Southern Theatre of War. On 2nd April 1918 he was transferred to the York and Lancaster Regiment. He was a Lewis gunner. A few weeks later he was wounded suffering a gunshot wound in the right thigh. He was treated at the Beaufort Military Hospital in Bristol . He was awarded furlough from 22nd – 31st December 1918. On 21 May 1919 he was demobbed.
It is not known if William married.

Amendments and Addenda

a) In 1922, William Cecil aged 23 married Gertrude May Bass, the daughter of a policeman in St Peter’s Church, Leicester. He was described as a ‘Manager’ and his address was Long Eaton, Derbyshire, perhaps working at the Raleigh Works as he seems to have continued in the cycle business. In the 1939 Register he was living in Nuneaton and his occupation was ‘Branch manager Cycles’. They had one son William S. Burton born in 1924 and William C died in 1952. His widow returned to Leicester and is buried at St Peter’s where she was married.

b) Harry Burton, the famous Egyptologist and photographer was William Cecil Burton’s uncle. William Cecil’s father John Robert Burton was the eldest of 11 children of William Burton a Cabinet maker/Carpenter/Joiner: Harry was one of his younger brothers. They grew up living in Burghley Lane and Church Lane in St Martin’s.
Harry is most famous for being the photographer of the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter from 1922.
Information from Barbara Midgley