Burrows Family

John Burrows and his wife Mary Anne (nee Exton) lived in Church St, Long Bennington.  When they married in 1876 John was a farm labourer, but he later became a cottager.  By 1901 he was a farm yardman and in 1911 he was a carter.  Mary Anne died in 1898, leaving 4 surviving children: John William, Emma J, Mary A and James.  John married again (Anne Lawson of Coddington) 4 years later.

At age 14 John William Burrows (born 1876) was working on a farm in was also apprenticed to C Ablewhite, grocer of Long Bennington.  By 1901 he’d moved to Beckenham, Kent and was working as a grocer’s manager.  In 1902 he married Annie Louise and by 1911 they were living in East Greenwich and had 3 children.  He was an assistant in a grocery and provisions business.

During the Great War he served with 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.  In Dec 1917 (age 41) he was an acting Cpl and was reported missing – probably in late Nov/early Dec in the Battle of Cambrai.  He was then reported to be a POW in a German hospital, but had been so severely wounded in his right foot that it was amputated.  On 21 Dec he died of his wounds.  He was buried in Hamburg cemetery.  

After the war his widow was living in Orchard Hill, Lewisham, but in 1920 she and the 3 children moved to New Zealand on SS Athenic.

The younger son James Burrows (born c1892) also worked for a grocer/baker (Mr Allen) on leaving school.  But by 1911 (aged 19) he was living in Mansfield Woodhouse and working as a carter in a stone quarry.  Soon after the outbreak of war he enlisted at Mansfield in the Leicestershire Regiment.  He sailed to France in July 1915 but in 1916 was invalided home with shell shock.  On recovery he transferred to 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment and returned to the front.   He was mentioned in despatches but was killed in action during the battle of Passchendaele on 6th Oct 1917.  Such was the confusion of the battle that his father only received official notification of his death on Christmas Day.  James was buried in Menin Road South Military Cemetery.