BURSNELL, JOHN – 26038 Pte 10^th Battalion KSLI and later 636060 Pte 172^nd Company Labour Corps.

Born 1881 in Ludlow, one of five children of John Bursnell, chimney sweep, and his wife Mary Ann (nee Ecclestone). His siblings were: Clara Jane (1879), Francis (1880), Mary Ann (1885) and Emmanuel (1888-1911). His mother died in 1891 and in 1904 John married Margaret Brady and they had six children: Frank (1905), Cyril (1907), Mary (1914), Annie (1916), Joan (1917-1922) and Eva (1922-1922). In 1911 the family lived at 44, Lower Galdeford, Ludlow with John’s widower father John (senior). John, like his father, worked as a chimney sweep.

John attested 9 December 1915 and was called up when he was aged 35 on 16 February 1917. At his medical John was 5ft 4” tall, weighed 9 stone 8 lbs and had a 34” chest. John landed in Egypt on 13 July 1917 and joined his battalion in Palestine where he took part in the capture of Jerusalem and Jericho. The battalion were then posted to the western front and John landed in France on 7 May 1918 and he served there until his return to the UK on 23 June 1919. Before then he had been transferred to the Labour Corps on 17 October 1918. John was discharged from the army on 21 July 1919 with a 15% disability due to re-occurring rheumatism that he first contracted in Palestine in August 1917 and which placed him in hospital in Boulogne in 1919.

John’s wife Margaret died in 1926 and John married Charlotte Smallman in 1928.

John Bursnell with family. The children from left to right are Frank, Mary, Annie (Nance), Joan and Cyril.

John Bursnell standing on left. (Photographs courtesy of Fran Harris)