Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.M. to Corporal R. Burns, West Yorkshire Regiment

Military Medal, G.V.R. (14761 Cpl., 11/W. York. R.) good very fine £280-320

M.M. London Gazette 19 February 1917.

Robert Burns was born in Wallsend-on-Tyne and enlisted at Castleford, Yorkshire. Serving with the 11th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 26 August 1915 and was later awarded the M.M. for bravery. He was killed in action at ‘Scots Redoubt’, battle of the Somme, on 4 July 1916. The battalion War Diary said of the day, ‘Attacked the enemy lines during the afternoon & obtained our objective. We were forced to retire & fall back on our our own lines’. Having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. Sold with copied research