From Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
Private Ernest Burls 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment { 7756 } who died on 26 August 1914
Age 31.[ born in 1886, so aged 28 in 1914 ]
Son of Charles and Sarah Burls of Parsonage Downs, Dunmow; husband of Maud Mary Burls, of 9 Cornhill, Ottery St Mary, Devon.
Remembered on La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial*
* The La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial is in the Seine-et-Marne area, 66 km. east of Paris.
Based on Census and Birth Register, Ernest was 28 years old in 1914, his wife Maud Mary was 31, and their daughter Doris Maud was just 3 years old. Ernest was the son of the late Charles Burls and Sarah Drane (previously Burls, née Seer – remarried in 1902, to Alfred Drane).
From 1911 Census:
Age last birthday 25; born in 1886 (England & Wales Births), so Ernest was aged 28 in 1914, not 31. In 1911 he was working in the Loco Shed, for the Great Western Railway, employed as a fire carrier. Wife Mary Maud – born in 1881 { ? birthplace given as Gt. Easton, but seems not so from other records). One daughter Doris Maud, 4 and a half months old, born in Paddington, London.
Family: Mother, Sarah Burls, was widowed in ??
Married again – in 1902 – to Alfred Drane: 1911 Census, Sarah Drane (aged 58), wife of Alfred DRANE of Parsonage Downs, Dunmow.
From 1901 Census
Aged 15. Living in The Endway, Great Easton – listed as grandson of Charles and Susan Seer. Their daughter Sarah Burls, a widow, is also listed (aged 48, b. 1853).
OTHER:
Soldiers died in the Great War 1914-19
Service number: 7756
Enlistment place: Braintree
Residence: North Kenington, Middlesex
Cause of death: Killed in action
Death place & theatre of war: France & Flanders, Western European Theatre
From ‘List of Subscribers’ (to Great Easton War Memorial):
Burls, Mr. and Mrs. H.
Seer, Mr. W.
Click here for CWG certificate Ernest Burls
