Charles Henry Burchnall
| Charles Henry Burchnall | |
|---|---|
| Died | 14 July 1915 |
| Cause of death | Shrapnel wound behind the ear |
| Education | Boston Grammar School (1905-10) |
| Employer | Hutsons (ironmongers); 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment |
Charles Henry Burchnall won a Minor County Scholarship to Boston Grammar School in 1905. After leaving in 1910, he became an apprentice at Hutsons, the Boston ironmongers. At about the same time, he joined the local Territorial Army group.
When war broke out in 1914, he volunteered for active service with the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. It was not long before his unit was sent to France. By this time, he had been promoted to the rank of Corporal.
When the Battalion was sent into the front line trenches in July 1915, it had to adopt the practice of bringing up the food rations and ammunition at night, under cover of darkness. It was too dangerous to do so in daylight. Charles was in A-Company, which was detailed to be the working party responsible for getting the supplies to their mates at the front. They were stationed in a dug-out safely to the rear.
Food supplies and any other necessaries were brought up by horse-transport every night to a given point, which was known as "the dump". From there, the ration party carried everything to the firing line. They worked between dusk and dawn but, even in the darkness, there was always danger from rifle and gunfire from the enemy line.
During the day, their base was sufficiently far back from the front to be out of sight and safe from small arms fire. Not so from shellfire, with its greater range. With ordinary shellfire, the velocity of the shells was less than that of the speed of sound, so one would hear the sound of the gun firing before the screech of the shell approaching. This gave time to dive for cover and safety. Not so though with the “whiz-bang” shell which travelled faster than the speed of sound, and so arrived almost simultaneously with the sound of the gun, the flight whiz and the explosion. There was no time to take cover.
At about ten o’clock on the morning of Wednesday 14th July 1915, after a tiring night’s work, Charles and the others of the working party were relaxing and tidying up. Breakfast was being prepared - water boiled for tea and bacon frying. Suddenly a whiz-bang exploded about 30 yards away. A piece of shrapnel hit Charles behind the ear and he fell to the ground, unconscious. He lived only half an hour and died without regaining consciousness.
Charles was buried in a nearby natural cemetery, beside a railway line. The Battalion Chaplain, Revd Paul Ashby conducted the service. One of those present was Meaburn Staniland, another BGS Old Boy, his Company Commander, who was himself killed in action just two weeks later.