Alfred Alexander Burt

The Hertfordshire Soldier Who Defused a German Bomb With His Bare Hands At twenty years old, with a German trench-mortar bomb lying among his comrades and only seconds separating them from disaster, Alfred Alexander Burt had a choice: seek cover or move toward the bomb. He moved toward it. What followed at Cuinchy on 27 September 1915 became one of the remarkable acts of courage of the First World War and earned the young Hertfordshire soldier the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy. Alfred Alexander Burt VC was born at Port Vale, Hertford, Hertfordshire, on 3 March 1895. The son of Thomas Richard Burt, a railway porter, and Martha Burt, he attended Cowbridge Road School and later found employment with the Hertford Gas Company, first as a toolboy and eventually as a fitter. Military life began unusually early. Burt enlisted in the Hertfordshire Regiment on 15 February 1911, only weeks before his sixteenth birthday. When the First World War erupted in August 1914, the young Territorial soldier was mobilised for active service. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Burt was promoted to Corporal on 18 September 1914, and on 6 November 1914 he crossed to France with the 1/1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment. His early arrival on the Western Front would later qualify him for the 1914 Star, together with the coveted 5th August to 22nd November 1914 clasp, represented by a silver rosette when only the ribbon was worn. He also became entitled to the British War Medal 1914-1920 and Victory Medal 1914-19 for his First World War service. victoriacrossonline.co.uk The Western Front quickly stripped away any distance between the young Hertfordshire soldier and the reality of war. On 19 November 1914, shortly after arriving in France, Burt's friend and future brother-in-law Harry West was killed beside him. Burt buried his friend, although West's remains were later lost and his name was ultimately commemorated on the Menin Gate. Burt remained with the Hertfordshires through the bitter conditions of trench warfare and the fighting of 1915. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Then came 27 September 1915. The Hertfordshire Regiment was near Cuinchy, France, during the wider Battle of Loos operations. Burt's company had crowded into the front trench in preparation for an attack. The battalion war diary records operations that evening, including German machine-gun fire and casualties from gas, and contemporary records identify this as the day on which No. 1665 Alfred Burt won the Victoria Cross. Hertfordshire Genealogy Into that packed trench fell a large German minenwerfer bomb. Burt understood exactly what it could do. He also had the opportunity to protect himself behind a traverse. Instead, he went directly toward the unexploded bomb. He placed his foot on the fuse mechanism, wrenched the fuse from the bomb and threw it over the parapet, rendering the weapon harmless before it could devastate the soldiers around him. The official Victoria Cross citation recorded that his “presence of mind and great pluck saved the lives of others in the traverse.” The award was published in The London Gazette, Issue 29447, in January 1916, alongside the Victoria Cross awards to Alfred Drake and Samuel Meekosha. Wikipedia It is difficult to imagine the seconds in which Burt made that decision. He was not attacking from a distance or acting without understanding the danger. The official citation specifically emphasised that he knew the destructive power of the bomb. His courage lay in recognising precisely what might happen and acting anyway. The honour was confirmed within his own regiment. The Hertfordshire Regiment's 1916 war diary recorded on 26 January 1916 that His Majesty the King had conferred the Victoria Cross upon “No. 1665 Cpl Alfred Alexander BURT 1st Herts.” Herts at War Burt's war, however, exacted a physical price. He was evacuated to England after suffering from gas exposure in February 1916. On 4 March 1916, King George V personally presented his Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace. Less than a month later, on 31 March 1916, Burt was discharged as no longer physically fit for military service because of the effects of his gas injury. victoriacrossonline.co.uk His connection with the regiment did not end there. On 11 November 1920, Burt joined other Victoria Cross holders in the Guard of Honour for the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, placing the young Hertfordshire veteran among some of the most highly decorated servicemen of the British Empire. He later rejoined the 1st Hertfordshire Regiment as a Private in April 1922, was appointed an unpaid Lance Corporal that July, and remained until his discharge at his own request in August 1925. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Civilian life took Burt from his old work as a fitter to becoming landlord of the New Inn at Chesham. During the Second World War he again contributed to the national war effort, working in the manufacture of searchlights and generators and serving for a time as an ARP warden. The long-term effects of his wartime injuries increasingly affected his health, and by the mid-1950s he was using a wheelchair. He died at Tindal General Hospital, Chesham, on 9 June 1962, aged 67. victoriacrossonline.co.uk Alongside his Victoria Cross, Burt's documented medal group comprised the 1914 Star with “Mons” clasp, British War Medal 1914-1920, Victory Medal 1914-19, King George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953. These campaign and Coronation medals were awarded according to entitlement rather than individual gallantry citations, so the Victoria Cross is the only decoration in his group accompanied by a personal citation describing a specific act of bravery. His complete medal group was presented by his daughter to the regimental collection in 1979 and is preserved with the Hertfordshire Regiment collection. victoriacrossonline.co.uk More than a century after the action at Cuinchy, Alfred Alexander Burt VC remains one of the defining Victoria Cross recipients of the Hertfordshire Regiment. His story was not built around a prolonged attack or a dramatic charge. It came down to a few seconds in a crowded trench, an unexploded German bomb, and one soldier deciding that the lives around him mattered more than the safety available only a few feet away. That decision made Alfred Burt a Victoria Cross recipient. What makes his story endure is how little time he had to make it.