Henry Thomas Burrow

1915 Feb 17, graduated with London City & Guilds diploma, sheet-metal working. Chch Technical college evening classes.

Trinity College of Music Upper school honours Tutored by his sister L Burrow. 27 oct 1911 Junior School Oct 28 1910. Lower school May 31 1911

ww1: 1917, canterbury infantry regiment, reg-no = 57472, plumber, next-of-kin = arthur thomas burrow (father) 27 draper st richmond.

Residence in 1917 27 Draper St Richmond (WW1 enlistment signed 15 May 1917)

From military record
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[typed data = enlistment] [black ink = 25 Sept 1924] [pencil = 9 Nov 1920] [stamped = 14 Feb 1941]

29th reinforcement 2nd battalion 1st company Canterbury Battalion rank = private rego = 57472 religion = methodist occupation = plumber (employed by I. Dunn, Richmond) [at enlistment] Living with father at 27 Draper St [1920] Henry living at 51 Nth Avon Rd [1924] Father living at 51 North Avon Rd, near Bealey Ave. [1924] Henry living at 22 Draper St

• * On his enlistment on 15 May 1917, he stated that he had previously been rejected from military service as "medically unfit".

height - 5 ft 5 inches weight = 134 lbs complexion = medium grey eyes, dark hair methodist Had eczema in 1911. Skin clear now. Passed medical examination, class A.

Enlisted 15 May 1917 Military service from 25 June 1917 to 17 Sep 1919.

Left Wellington, Aug 15 1917 arrived Glasgow Oct 2 Stayed at a place called "Sling" Left for France Oct 26 1917 Marched to Etaples, arrived Oct 29. Posted to new company Dec 22 1917 Sent to field hospital Feb 7 1918. Then to Wimireux, a town near Calais on coast facing UK.

11 March, transferred to "Conv -dep" Bologne then to Ecault 1 April discharged to rest camp Then to Etaples Rejoined unit in the field 11 April Back in hospital 8th June Discharged then sick again June 22 Transferred to England June 22 Admitted to NZ hospital Aug 24 (Hornchurch) Feb 1919 appointed cook relinquished appointment book May 1919

embarked for NZ, 2nd July 1919.

'Sling', the New Zealand military camp at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain

Served in Western Europe.

address in 1924 = 25 Draper St. [not sure why there are two such addresses]

In Europe 15 Aug 1917 to 20 Aug 1918. Returned to Somerset 21 Aug 1918 and then straight to NZ, next day.

Admitted to hospital in France 23 Feb 1918, debility Transferred a few times from 'Conv-dep" to same, then April 9 1918 "discharged" to Base Depot, France.

24th June admitted to hospital again, "Trench fever".

26th June, sent to Bathurst in UK.

Transferred to Hornchurch then to "Bodford" 11 Nov 1918.

Appointed as Cook for early part of 1919.

--- memoir (of another kiwi soldier, six months earlier but same circumstances) extract ---- ...off to France, marching in to the NZ infantry depot at Etaples, south of Boulogne, four days later. ...intensive training at Etaples, they were marched out to the front to join the New Zealand Division in the Ypres Salient. ...replacements were in high demand. The NZ Division had been engaged in the Third Battle of Ypres, a massive offensive that had raged since late July in an attempt to take the heavily fortified high ground east of Ypres and push through, the generals naively hoped, to the Belgian coast. That offensive is better known by the name of the village where the bloody campaign was finally called to a halt - Passchendaele. ...Some progress was made in the first three months through ‘bite and hold’ tactics, small advances to capture and defend enemy ground. By October, however, the weather had deteriorated and the conditions were horrendous, the battleground chewed to bits by incessant shelling, the drainage system literally blown away. All the beautiful woods were dead, horribly dead. There was no grass or pleasant herb. The streams that once made glad the smiling valleys were horrible bogs. Over all the wide area no bird sang. For mile after mile shell-hole touched shell-hole, with here and there a great, gaping crater torn by a mine explosion. As far as the eye could see was a wide expanse of full and dreary brown. Everywhere there is desolation, destruction, and the visible signs of death and decay. ...the 3rd Battalion had already been in the thick of it. It played a key role in the successful but costly advance and capture of Broodseinde, Abraham Heights and Gravenstafel on 4 October. But, the worst was yet to come for the young Kiwi army. On 12 October, the New Zealanders and the Australian 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions advanced on well-entrenched German positions just outside Passchendaele. The final objectives were in sight and the generals were impatient to push on. But the heaviest rains for 30 years made the appalling conditions even worse. The attack on the 12th should have been called off. But the generals, believing the Germans heavily demoralised, ordered it to proceed. ...It was never going to work. Struggling through deep mud with inadequate artillery cover and against uncut wire, the troops moved forward into a bloody and inevitable massacre. In just four hours, 2,700 New Zealanders alone were killed or wounded, a 60 per cent casualty rate. Recovering the wounded from the field of battle took two and a half days, even with an informal truce in place to protect stretcher-bearers from both sides. The assault was a complete and costly failure that, some say, broke the spirit of the New Zealand Division. ...The Ypres Salient 1917 Between October 1917 and January 1918 ,,,relieving the battered survivors of the great debacle that had taken place at Passchendaele ...[up to nov 1917] 310,000 Allied troops had been killed or wounded since the Passchendaele offensive began in late July. ...There is a limit to human endurance, and during the winter of 1917-18 this limit was very nearly reached. At no other time was the morale of the British Army so low. At no time was the war so nearly lost. The terrible disaster before Passchendaele, and the fearful price which had finally to be paid for it, had disheartened many. Then, too, it was obvious that, despite the tactical success, the strategic objective had not been reached. After three years of war, men everywhere were sick of the slaughter, home-sick, weary, worn out with labour, disgusted with the sordidness and the naked, dirty horror of the bloody business. Mentally, morally, physically, the ordinary man was done. ...During the winter, the Allies set about re-fortifying the shattered defences of Passchendaele Ridge. With an armistice signed between Germany and Russia, a major enemy offensive was expected in the coming spring as hundreds of thousands of German troops were released from the eastern front. Some 25,000 men from tunneling companies and 50,000 attached infantry were assigned to the task. They built almost 200 separate underground defensive works. Each ‘dugout’ accommodated between 50 and 2,000 men. Against this background, the New Zealand and Australian Divisions were to winter around Polygon Wood, to the south of Passchendaele. Here, life followed a standard pattern: a week in the front line, a week in reserve. But the time spent in reserve was time spent in working parties, often in areas of extreme danger, moving supplies, burying the dead, carrying rations, constructing trenches, erecting barbed wire entanglements in no man’s land, or digging defensive positions for artillery and mortar batteries. ...The 3rd Battalion was in and out of the frontline on three more occasions between November and January, occupying forward positions around the tiny hamlet of Noordenhoek, to the east of Polygon Wood on each occasion. ...These were described as “quiet” months. But, by the time the NZ Division was relieved on 24 February 1918, its three “quiet” months had come at a cost of 3,000 casualties. ...hastily preparing defensive works ahead of the German offensive

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Have WW1 service info on laptop.
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Mum has this extraordinary story about him (she never met him so must have had this passed to her via her dad) At the time of his military service in WW1, Henry went to no. 10 Downing Street and knocked on the door, claiming to be a relative of a certain Miss Burrow who was in the employ of the then Prime Minister (who would have to have been David Lloyd George). The door was slammed in the face of the impertinent soldier. A Google search established that there was an Emily Ann Burrows (note the 's'), wife of a Mr Zaharoff, who was having an affair with David Lloyd George, whose appetite for women was described by one source as "insatiable". This seems to have been at the heart of a conspiracy theory that Lloyd George was manipulated by this Mr Zaharoff, a theory that may or may not have any credibility; that I don't know. The most sensible conclusion from this is that Henry was simply being provocative and silly in the face of a scandalous rumour in circulation at the time. I should add that Emily Burrows married Zaharoff in 1872, which means that by 1912 she must have been in her 60s. Whereas Zaharoff seems to have been a controversial person all his life for his devious activities, there is nothing more than a slanderous comment in a book to suggest Emily was involved with Lloyd George. Yet it is interesting that Henry Burrow of NZ should have been aware of this. UPDATE: The "brief liaison" between Lloyd George and Emily Burrow happened much earlier. Burrow was Zaharoff's first wife and she died in 1900. The 'liaison' appears to have happened when Burrow was married to Zaharoff, and Zaharoff knew about it. (from Mum) Whereas I was (and still am) prepared to see this as a stupid prank by a drunk soldier trying to show off to his mates (acting on some gossip he picked up about a Miss Burrow), Mum's mum related the story as if this man Henry had a genuine belief that there was a Miss Burrow living at number ten and that she would welcome him in. It was not viewed by Maud as a prank. This is highly implausible given the historic detail. Perhaps there was a different, younger Miss Burrow in the PM's house in 1914-18? Even if there were some kind of family connection, how close could this be? The closest possible relationship would be a second cousin, never met. [end]
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Mum remembers Henry's wife Fanny coming to the house to say that her husband had died. Fanny was universally disliked by the Burrow clan. Mum calls her a "trollop".
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1917 - Lived at 27 Draper St, Richmond in May 1917, when he was called up for service in WW1. (what they called a Ballot). He was a plumber. Last address: 47 Swann St
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city directory 1940 - Hy T Burrow - lived at 590 Fitzgerald Ave between Tancred St and Surrey St

          (Mum thinks Fanny lived in Averill St before 1940, at the end closest to Nth Parade)

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There is a plaque on the hind face of the Burrow family gravestone remembering HT Burrow died 1940. He was a private in the NZEF nd his serial number is given. Does this mean that he died in action in WW2? If so, what are the details?
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Henry Thomas Burrow's Grave stone can be found in the Bromley Cemetery in the Block Number 3C RSA, Plot Number 13.

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