Dawlish World War One Project

In 1901 Arthur was boarding with the Long family at 22 Victoria Terrace, Portland when his
occupation was shown as “Fireman on steam, Navvy Public Works”.
John Long (1847-1924) and his wife Arabella (1857- ) had seven children at home in 1901 and
their eldest daughter Louise (1882- ) was of a similar age to Arthur, the lodger.

Arthur and Louise  married in 1907 (Weymouth, June 1907, Vol 5a, p 665).
It is not known when Arthur Charles Burch joined the army, or whether he and Louisa had
children. The WW1 Service Medal and Award Rolls show that he had been enlisted with the 5th
Dorset Regiment, as a Private, No 18625 before joining the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire)
Regiment, 1st Battalion, Private No 26681.
He is shown to have been Killed in action and was buried at the Berkshire Cemetery, Hainaut,
Belgium.  (see regimental diary extract in Documents, below)

Arthur Charles Burch was the grandson of William Burch (1826- ), a gardener born in
Lympstone, and Ann Maria Burch (1832- ), born in Chagford and who worked as a laundress.
They had eleven children of which three had died by the census of 1911. Among them was
Bessie, born in 1862. They had been living at Manor Place, Dawlish (1861) and 16 Park Row
(1871).

(see further detail in Documents, below)
In 1881 Bessie Burch was 19 and a housemaid to Sarah Lindsey, a boarding house keeper at 10
West Cliff Hill, Dawlish. Arthur was born in the following year (Q1, 1882, Newton Abbot district
Vol 5b, page 114) and it appears that Bessie was his mother but no father is shown.   (read more of his life story in the Document below)