THIS week our series marking the 100th anniversary of Redditch soldiers who died in the First World War tells the tragic story of Private Ralph Burton, a man who was probably killed in action a year earlier in July 1916.
He was a member of the 10th battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment which took part in the first days of the Somme offensive which began on July 1, 1916.
Poised for action on that fateful day, by the time the call came for the 20th to move up to join the assault, such were the casualties coming back the other way, and the mud and confusion, that by the time they reached the front line it was too late to attack.
Utterly exhausted, they spent much of the following day, July 2, asleep amidst a constant bombardment.
That night they moved up again, this time across open ground to avoid another jam in the trenches, but under fire from German artillery.
At 3am on July 3, they attacked across No Man’s Land at the village of La Boiselle.
All the houses had been destroyed, the regimental diaries describing it thus: ‘The fighting was hand-to-hand or at point-blank range, with bomb, bullet or cold steel.’
Given the hour, it was also incredibly difficult to tell friend from foe but by first light officers were bringing some order to the confusion.
By midday the fighting was over, but at a terrible cost: Nine officers and 197 other ranks had been killed or died of their wounds, and 106 were missing, including Pte Burton, probably buried in the ruins of buildings and dugouts.
Ralph Burton had been born in 1896 in Astwood Bank and christened Joseph Ralph Burton, he was the third child of Joseph and Kate Burton. The family moved to Rugby but in 1903 Ralph’s father died and his mother moved back to live with her father in Butler Street in Astwood Bank.
By 1911 she was working as a housekeeper and Ralph, aged 15, was a clerk with a building contractor.
He was declared presumed dead in March 1917 and is remembered today on the Astwood Bank war memorial.
