A family remembrance of the Great War

Finding the gravesite of my great-uncle was a revelation, writes Richard Breton.

In recent months, I have read with great interest the published stories of the First World War and the devastating efect it must have had on thousands of families related to the deaths of our brave young Canadians between 1914 and 1918.

Everyone who has a relative or knowledge of a soldier who died during the Great War should research records of the known casualty for remembrance. Good sources to begin with are the Canadian Government First World War files, Library and Archives, the Veterans Afair Book of Remembrance, the Official History of the Canadian Army, the Military Cemeteries established in France and Belgium through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the War Graves Photographic Project.

To my amazement, I located the exact burial of my great-uncle Private Sévère Burton in Poperinge, Belgium.

My great-uncle was born on Sept. 17, 1895, and baptized on Sept. 22 at the Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic Church in Vanier.

Sévère’s parents, Moïse Breton and Marie Guévremont, originally came from Sainte-Cécile de Masham in Québec. In his late teens, he worked with his father and brothers for Hawkesbury and Edwards, a lumber company. On Aug. 25, 1915, he presented himself at the military office in Smiths Falls to enlist. Although Sévère was baptized Burton, his original ancestry name was Breton, but in English, the name Burton was commonly used. He was 19 years of age and declared fit and accepted in the 80th Battalion of the Expeditionary Forces.

For the next several months, he was based at Valcartier Military Training Camp before sailing to England from Halifax on the RMS Baltic on May 16, 1916. He arrived in England on May 29. He was promoted to the rank of Corporal on June 5 and transferred to the 74th Battalion in Bramshott on June 13. A couple of weeks later, he requested that he be reverted to the rank of Private, which was granted on June 22. Then on July 1st, he was transferred to the 87th Battalion, 11th Brigade of the Canadian Infantry Trench Mortar Battery, 4th Canadian Division.

On Aug. 12, 1916, he arrived in France and his military duties with the 87th Battalion would be taking part in trench warfare prior to the documented Battle of the Ancre Heights near the village of Thiepval between July and November 1916. Thiepval was one of the fortress villages that were held by the Germans on the Somme Battlefields.

On Aug. 24, 1916, just shy of his 21st birthday, he was seriously wounded on the battlefield and transported to Number 10 casualty clearing station, called Remi Siding, near the Town of Poperinge.

Thirteen days after his arrival from Bramshott England and a year to the day after his enlistment in Smiths Falls, he died of his wounds by shrapnel and of a fractured skull, as described on the hospital casualty form. He was later buried with an erected cross at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Plot # 1X.C. 19A in Poperinge.

After his death, his father Moïse Breton received a posthumous award for his son: The British War Medal for services overseas and the Victory Medal for serving in a Theatre of War with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.

Sévère was also honoured for his part in the Battle of the Ancre Heights and Thiepval on page 62 of the Book of Remembrance for the First World War, which lies in the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.

On Feb. 17 of each year, this page is exposed for public viewing.

I wrote this short biography for all the Breton family members who are related to Sévère Burton to remember him next week on Aug. 25, 100 years to the day after he enlisted, and the 99th anniversary of his death while serving his country with many of his deceased military comrades.

Rest in peace, great-uncle Sévère, lest we forget.

On Aug. 24, 1916, just shy of his 21st birthday, he was seriously wounded.