2nd LIEUTENANT ISLAY FERRIER BURNS, 97th COMPANY MACHINE GUN CORPS (INFANTRY).

2nd LIEUTENANT ISLAY FERRIER BURNS, 97th COMPANY MACHINE GUN CORPS (INFANTRY). KILLED IN ACTION 10th JULY 1917 AGED 21 YEARS.

Islay Burns, known as Bobbie', was born in Chatham, Kent on the 20th September 1896 the son of Islay and May Burns. However, within a few years the family moved to Cambridge where Islay senior was to become a tutor and librarian at the Presbyterian, Westminster College. Bobbie began his education in Cambridge at the Perse School but in about 1909 he came to Ilkley as a boarder at Ilkley Grammar School.

Popular with his peers he loved debating and rugby and was a frequent contributor to the school magazine, The Olicanian, to which he would submit poems under the pen name 'Tam O' Shanter'.Even during the war years he would send letters and articles to both the Olicanian and the Ilkley Gazette when he would describe the horrors of life in the trenches and compare them almost lyrically with the softer times that he had in Ilkley. In one article he would write with some degree of prescience "I am a youngster yet - not 20 but whether I die tomorrow, the next day or not for years and years, the best time of my life ever have been my schooldays up in Yorkshire.

In 1914 at the age of 18 Bobbie left Ilkley and returned south. He had passed matriculation exams for London University and he was to begin an engineering course at City and Guilds College, then part of Imperial College. There Bobbie was a member of the London University Officer Training Corps but he clearly had thoughts about enlisting in the army as a volunteer. His contemporaries back in Ilkley had joined local regiments and it may have been a desire to serve with his friends that prompted him to enlist in the Motor Machine Gun Service of the Royal Artillery. Several Ilkley Grammar School pupils had volunteered for this unit which was being rapidly assembled at Coventry. A high degree of riding and repairing motorcycles was a prerequisite and only experienced cyclists could join the MMGS. The fact that Bobbie was accepted into this unit hints at at excellent cycling skills and it may be presumed that they may have been learned with his pre-war friends in Ilkley.

On 1st of May 1915 Bobbie arrived in France with his new unit the the 10th Battery MMGS of the Royal Artillery. Equipped with motorcycles and side cars upon which a heavy machine gun would be attached, its role was to respond quickly to where machine gun support was needed.

Throughout the remainder of 1915 and into 1916 the 10th Battery would have been employed at positions along the British Front Line. However, by mid 1916 the perceived need for this type of unit began to wane and instead full companies of static machine guns were seen as essential. The expansion into the Machine Gun Corps meant that men with experience of machine guns were offered the opportunity to apply for commissions. Bobbie Burns was one of those chosen to become an officer and in mid 1916 returned to Britain to undergo training.

It was May 1917 before Bobbie returned to France as a 2nd Lieutenant and posted to the 97th Company Machine Gun Corps who were stationed near to the city of Amiens in the Somme sector of the British front. However, within a few weeks his unit moved north to the town of Nieuport which was on the Belgian coast. This was the northern end of the Western Front were the trenches ended literally on the beach. It had been held by the French and the defences were in a poor state not least because of the difficulty in constructing trench systems in the wide sand dunes and reclaimed land found in the area. Often the front line consisted of mounds of sandbags and wide drainage ditches made access difficult.

In the build up to the forthcoming 3rd Battle of Ypres the British planned to advance along the coast and capture the U Boat base at Ostend. The German army got wind of this plan and prepared a preemptive strike against the British. On the 10th July 1917 the Germans launched a violent attack against Nieuport using heavy artillery and specially trained troops armed with flamethrowers. the intensity of the barrage caused immense damage to the British defenses which were unable to withstand the onslaught. Units became isolated as bridges over the many drainage ditches were destroyed and some British Battalions ceased to exist.

Bobbies Company was located just a few hundred yards from the beach and took the full force of the the German assault. Probably trying to shield his parents from the horrors of the truth his commanding officer wrote to them saying that their son had been shot through the heart and died instantly. Unfortunately, another officer wrote describing how Bobbie been gassed, burned and buried whilst carrying ammunition forward and that his death had been far from instantaneous.

Reports suggest that Bobbie's body was recovered and buried near to the village of Coxyde but the grave must have been lost in subsequent fighting. Today 2nd Lieutenant Islay Ferrier Burns has no known grave and is remembered on the Memorial to the Missing at Nieuport. He is also remembered on the war memorial at Ilkley Grammar School.