One of my distant ancestors, George Ward (1735–1790), moved to Dorset to work with his uncle, John Sharrer, in the Sherborne silk industry. There, George married a local woman, Elizabeth Ridout. The couple had six children, including their daughter Mary Ann, born in 1780.
In 1803, Mary Ann married Daniel Burges by special licence (costing £200) granted by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. Daniel was a solicitor based in the Clifton area of Bristol.
Daniel and Mary Ann’s eldest son, Daniel Burges (born 1810), followed his father into the legal profession and later became solicitor and Town Clerk of the City of Bristol. He married Eliza Mary Travers, daughter of Benjamin Travers, a prominent surgeon and member of Queen Victoria’s Medical Household.
Daniel and Eliza had six children. Their eldest son, Daniel Travers Burges (born 1839 in Clifton), continued the family tradition in law. In 1872 he married his cousin, Alice Sarah Travers, and they had four sons and two daughters.
The eldest of their sons, again named Daniel Burges, was born on 1 July 1873 in the Bloomsbury district of London. Educated at Winchester College, he was commissioned at the age of 20 as a Second Lieutenant into the Gloucestershire Regiment on 21 October 1893.
Military Service
Daniel served in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) with the 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, participating in actions including the Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, and Driefontein. For this service he received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with four clasps and the King’s South Africa Medal with two clasps. He remained in South Africa until 1902. From 1908 to 1913 he was attached to the Punjab Volunteer Rifles.
At the outbreak of the Great War he returned to active service. He was promoted to temporary Lieutenant Colonel in 1915 and commanded the 7th (Service) Battalion, South Wales Borderers, on the Salonika front in the Balkans. For distinguished service in the Salonika operations he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the King’s Birthday Honours of June 1918.
On 18 September 1918, during the Battle of Doiran at Jumeaux, Lieutenant Colonel Burges displayed extraordinary courage in an action that earned him the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the British and Commonwealth forces. He was also Mentioned in Despatches on multiple occasions during the war and later received the French Croix de Guerre with Palm and the Greek War Cross (2nd Class).
“For most conspicuous bravery, skilful leading and devotion to duty in the operations at Jumeaux (Balkans) on the 18th September 1918. His valuable reconnaissance of the enemy front line trenches enabled Lieutenant Colonel Burges to bring his battalion, without casualties, to the assembly point, but later while some distance from the objective they came under severe machine-gun fire. Although he himself was wounded the colonel continued to lead his men with skill and courage until he was hit again twice and fell unconscious. He was taken prisoner by the Bulgarians, but was abandoned in a dug-out with one of his legs shattered.”
In reality, Burges was severely wounded in no-man’s-land. Two German machine-gunners carried him back to their trench, where they gave him food and water. He was later transported down a mountain path by Bulgarian soldiers using a bivouac sheet and received only basic medical care. When the Bulgarian forces retreated, British troops found him. By the time he reached a British field hospital, gangrene had set in, and his leg had to be amputated.
He was invested with both his Victoria Cross and DSO by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 21 December 1918.
Service after WW1
After the war he held appointments at the War Office and as Commandant of military detention barracks in Cologne and Colchester. He was placed on retired pay in 1923 and appointed Resident Governor and Major of the Tower of London, a post he held from 1 July 1923 to 1 July 1933. He was also awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal (with Mentioned in Despatches oak leaf), and the King George VI Coronation Medal in 1937.
Daniel Burges had married Katherine Blanche Fortescue in 1905; she died in 1931 (her probate record lists the Tower of London as her residence). In 1932 he married Florence Wray Cox. The couple later moved to Durdham Down, near Bristol. Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Burges VC, DSO died in Bristol on 24 October 1946, aged 73.
References:
http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/bbburges.htm
https://salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk/salonika-centenary/dan-burges-vc