Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Robert Ward Burnip was born on 15 January 1894, to parents Robert Angus and Isabella (nee Ward).  Robert’s mother, Isabella, died in 1894 possibly as a result of childbirth.  Following Isabella’s death, his father re-married Sarah Isabella Webster in 1900.

Robert’s father was previously married to Elizabeth Jane Gibbon and Robert had three half-siblings from this marriage, Lucy (1884), John William (1885) and Ernest (1889).

On the 1901 census, Robert was living with his father and step-mother at Old Chapel House, Front Street, Winlaton, Gateshead. His father’s occupation was listed as ‘Sergeant of Police’.  Robert’s father died in 1909, aged 52 and in 1911 Robert, an assistant grocer is living with his step-mother at 33 Ravensworth Road, Dunston-on-Tyne.

Robert attested into the Territorial Force Royal Army Medical Corps on 17 May 1915, aged 21 years 5 months. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France from 18 November 1916 to 24 January 1919. He was serving with the 58th Field Ambulance on demobilisation on 31 March 1920, and was awarded the British War and Allied Victory Medals.

Robert married Margaret Bethiah Glass in 1924 at Gateshead.

In the 1939 Register Robert and Margaretwere living at 38 Home Avenue, Gateshead and Robert was a grocery shop assistant. He volunteered as an Air Raid Warden in the Second World War.  Robert died in Gateshead in 1974, aged 80.

If you can tell us more about Robert, please get in touch.