Samuel Burchell was an East-London flower seller born in Bethnal Green. He was was aged 37 when he attested on 9 December 1915. He was the oldest son of Samuel and Jane (also known as Tany) Burchell. His father was a looking-glass frame maker who had died by the turn of the century. His widowed mother made matchboxes at her home in Mile End with his siblings until her death in 1908. Samuel's brother Joe was a 1st Class stoker in the Royal Navy since before the war and his brother Arthur was a gunner, who became a Sergeant, in the RGA, based in Malta. His sisters were Jane (also known as Fany) Goddard and Lizzie Amos. Samuel had married his german wife Anna on 28 June 1902 in Edmonton and they lived at 4 Roman Road, Mile End together. She was born in Hamburg. They had no children. Samuel was not called up for service from the reserves until 3 April 1917 and was sent to Egypt 3 months later, embarking on 12 July 1917. The journey was over a fortnight and he arrived in Alexandria, Egypt on 29 July 1917. He joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (1/5 Bn) on 10 August 1917 but was hospitalised very shortly afterwards on 30 August with Dysentry and died in hospital on 9 September 1917. Killed by disease rather than the enemy, but a disease caused solely by being taken to an alien place so far from home. He was middle aged and perhaps too old for this. He had turned 38 on 8 June 1917. His record indicates he was perfectly well before this happened. He was loyal to his country despite his wife's German connections. Even though she lost her husband to the cause, Anna seems to have been driven back to Germany after his sacrifice in Egypt and re-settled in Hamburg shortly after the war. Rather a waste that after all that journey he lasted less than a month in the field.

John Southan