Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/07/1915

Date of Discharge

28/10/1919

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

28/08/1896

Place of Birth

Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Annie Burke (mother), Brighton Road, St. Kilda, Victoria

Final Rank

Major

Final Unit

4 Field Artillery Brigade AIF

Military Cross (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No.57, 18 April 1918)

Burke entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 9 March 1913 and graduated, along with the rest of his class, early on 28 June 1915. He left Australia as a Lieutenant with the 6th Field Artillery Brigade, arriving in Egypt just as the AIF was being evacuated from Gallipoli. He arrived in France in March 1916 and moved to the Armentières sector in the north of the country where he was wounded in both legs in June 1916. After treatment in England he returned to France in November 1916 and was promoted to Captain and command of the 14th Battery in the 5th Field Artillery Brigade. He was awarded the Military Cross for his coolness in observation posts and Battery positions while under heavy fire near Noreuil in April and May 1917. He was promoted to Major with the 4th Field Artillery Brigade in January 1918 and was then wounded in the head during the Battle of Mt. St. Quentin at the end of August 1918.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Honours & Awards
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls