Battle of Flers-Courcelette: Remembering Harry Burchett

Early Life and Family

Harry Percy Burchett was born at Elmsted, near Ashford in Kent, on 22 July 1883, the son of John Burchett and Elizabeth Hayward. The spelling of the surname varies in surviving records, appearing as Burchett, Birchett and occasionally Berckett; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as Harry Percy Birchett. Such variations were common in an age when names were often recorded by clerks from spoken information rather than checked against formal identity documents. [1]

He was baptised on 28 October 1883 at Hastingleigh, Kent. By the census of 1891 he was living with his family at Elmsted, aged eight, and he remained in the parish into early adulthood. In 1901, aged nineteen, he was recorded at Evington Lees, Elmsted, as a son in his father’s household. These records place Harry within the close rural communities of the Kentish Weald, where family, parish and agricultural life shaped the circumstances of many young men who later entered military service during the Great War. [1]

On 24 March 1913 Harry married Rose Sarah Worrell at the Church of St Gregory and St Martin, Wye. The marriage banns had been read there earlier that month. The couple had a daughter, Gladys Daisy Burchett, and were associated with Wye in the years before and during the war; by 1916 Harry’s home address was recorded as 16 Scotton Street, Wye. His death therefore left not only his parents, but also a young widow and child. [1]

Harry left Kent for the Western Front as a husband and father, and his loss was felt across two generations of his family.

Military Service

Harry served as Private L/7920 in the 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), the county regiment with which many Kent men identified. His medal entitlement—the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal—shows that he served overseas in the early part of the war, while the Memorial Plaque issued after his death marked the family’s bereavement. [1]

The available service material places him in France and Flanders from 27 December 1914 until his death in September 1916. He had already been wounded by 1 July 1915, when he appeared on a War Office casualty list. That listing also qualified him for a wound stripe under Army Order 204 of July 1916. The surviving evidence does not identify the precise circumstances of his wounding, but it demonstrates that he had endured active service well before the Somme offensive claimed his life. [1]

The 1st Battalion was a Regular Army battalion. At the outbreak of war it was stationed at Fermoy, County Cork, as part of 16th Brigade, 6th Division. It moved to Cambridge in August 1914, mobilised in September and landed at St Nazaire, France, on 10 September 1914. The battalion then served continuously on the Western Front, including operations on the Aisne heights in 1914 and at Hooge in 1915. [1]

Unit Context at Time of Death

By September 1916 the 1st Buffs remained part of 16th Brigade in the 6th Division. During the Battle of the Somme, the division was serving with XIV Corps on the southern sector of the British attack. On 15 September it was committed during the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, a major phase of the Somme offensive fought from 15 to 22 September. [2][3]

The immediate objective confronting the division was the Quadrilateral, a formidable German fieldwork near Ginchy, sometimes described as the Quadrilateral Redoubt. This fortified position dominated approaches towards Lesboeufs and Morval, and its deep wire, trenches and machine-gun positions made it a major obstacle to the British advance. The 1st Buffs’ regimental history summary records 15 September as the date of the attack on the Quadrilateral. [4]

The day is especially remembered for the first use of tanks in a major British offensive. Yet their tactical impact was limited and uneven. The attack at the Quadrilateral suffered from damaged or uncut wire and from gaps in the artillery barrage intended to allow tanks to pass; the expected support did not overcome the strength of the German defences. The wider operation nevertheless captured ground around Flers and Courcelette at severe cost. [3][2][1]

On 15 September 1916, the 1st Buffs attacked one of the Somme battlefield’s most heavily defended strongpoints.

Circumstances of Death

Private Harry Percy Burchett was killed in action in France on 15 September 1916, aged thirty-one. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirms his service with the 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), and records his death on that date. [5]

His death coincided with the opening day of the Battle of Flers–Courcelette and the 6th Division’s costly struggle for the Quadrilateral. The individual report associates his loss specifically with that fighting. Although no surviving personal account has been identified to establish the exact moment or location at which he was killed, the unit’s role and the date make clear that he died amid the intense infantry attacks around the German defences south of Ginchy. [4][1]

The failure to take the Quadrilateral immediately reflected the obstacles faced by British infantry across the Somme: formidable wire, organised machine-gun fire, imperfect artillery intelligence and difficult ground. Further attacks were required before the position was finally captured, and the 6th Division suffered approximately 3,000 casualties during the wider action. Harry was one of the men lost in this costly effort to break through towards the villages beyond the ridge. [1]

Burial and Commemoration

Harry was buried in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont, in the Somme, grave XIV. P. 33. The cemetery stands in the landscape of the 1916 Somme fighting and contains many men who died in the battles around Guillemont, Ginchy, Lesboeufs and the surrounding front. His grave provides a named and enduring place of commemoration far from the Kent villages in which he was born and raised. [5][1]

His Commonwealth War Graves Commission record preserves his official identity as Private Harry Percy Birchett, 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), while his family-history records retain the spelling Burchett. Both forms belong to the same man: the Kent-born soldier, husband of Rose Sarah Worrell and father of Gladys Daisy, who died in the Somme campaign. [5][1]

Legacy

Harry Percy Burchett’s story links the rural parishes of Elmsted and Hastingleigh with Wye and the battlefields of northern France. He was not merely a name on a casualty list: he was a son, husband, father and experienced infantryman who had already been wounded before returning to the front line in 1916. [1]

His service illustrates the long experience of the Regular Army battalions that had gone to France in 1914 and remained in action through successive campaigns. Remembering Harry also means recognising the quiet, continuing effects of war on Rose Sarah, Gladys Daisy and the wider Burchett and Worrell families in Kent. [1]

Sources and Further Reading

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Battle of Flers-Courcelette: Remembering Harry Burchett

Early Life and Family

Military Service

Unit Context at Time of Death

Circumstances of Death

Burial and Commemoration

Legacy

Sources and Further Reading

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Early Life and Family

Military Service

Unit Context at Time of Death

Circumstances of Death

Burial and Commemoration

Legacy

Sources and Further Reading

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Discover more from Mike's Cousins

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Discover more from Mike's Cousins