Fred (William Frederick W) Burt was born in Carleton Rode in 1891. His parents were James Wilson W Burt, an agricultural labourer from Bunwell, and Rebecca Butolph, a milliner and dressmaker from Wattlefield (on the road to Wymondham from Bunwell Bottom, where the Burts lived). His siblings were Percy, Martha, Ernest George, Eva M and Jack. By 1911, the family are living on the Mile Road and Fred is a labourer. When he enlists in 1914 he records his occupation as ‘milkman’.
Fred signed up on the 15th September 1914 as a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment, although he was subsequently attached to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was sent to Mesopotamia in September 1915 but was redirected to Salonika in Greece. In 1916, Fred was taken to hospital in Malta and died on the 26th August from perforated intestines (duodena) following an operation.
He is buried in Pieta Military Cemetery, Malta where, due to shallow soil, there are many joint graves.
The surviving records of soldiers who fought in the First World War were badly burned during the Blitz on London in World War 2 and as a consequence, 60% were destroyed. Fred’s records are partially burned and they include letters from his fiancée desperate for news of him. Fred’s nephew, Ronnie Burt, believed that her family name was Reeve and that she came from Suton.
Fred’s brother, Ernest, also fought through the war but survived (more information to follow). His oldest brother, Percy, failed a medical for the Army and remained a farm labourer.
Fred’s parents placed the following extract in the EDP, In Memoriam section. It was taken from a poem written by a fellow soldier, Private Edward Lunn, of the 7th Royal Irish Fusiliers, in memory of a friend:
Although his hands we cannot clasp, his face we cannot see
Just let this token tell that we remember thee.