Current Information:

Age-28

Born-Poplar

Enlisted-London

On 9th December, 1914, the 3rd Worcestershire, of 7 Brigade, 3rd Division moved into the front line to the east of Kemmel in Belgium where they remained until relieved three days later. The battalion diary provides no information concerning this period spent in the Kemmel trenches so the circumstances of the death of Robert Burns on 10th December are not known. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.