by Burke » Sat Mar 30, 2013 7:03 pm
gilbo139 wrote:
> James, Service records, pension records,and medal index cards are available
> on Ancestry or Find my past at a subscription, your best bet I think may be
> Find my past as you can buy credits and I think their pre First World War
> records are better than Ancestry . I,ve spent a while looking at Medal
> Index Cards for you but so far haven,t found a 4th Battalion James Burke,
> Don,t suppose you,ve got a date of birth or birth place..... also as you
> may know a lot of service records were destroyed in the blitz so you
> probably only have a 30% chance of finding them....the medal index card
> should definately be there......regards Colin
Hi Colin. You were dead right about 2nd Bttn. He is listed on the Worcester Cathedral embarkation list for 1st & 2nd Worcesters. That means he was at Gheluvelt action and battle of Messines. He was born 1887 in Mile End / Stepney area, moving to Becontree after the war when he got married and had 5 kids, including my dad, also James Francis Burke. His wife lived to 96. I was named after him and my other grandad William, hence JW Burke. Many thanks for that lead. Now I can really delve into his military past.