George James Burbridge - Lest We Forget

George James Burbridge was born April 15, 1891 at Lancashire, England. He was the son of James Burbridge born November 1865 in England and Elizabeth Burbridge born March 1867 in England. The family immigrated to Canada in 1899 eventually settling in the Beaton area at the northern end of the Upper Arrow Lake. James Burbridge was a logging contractor in 1906 and had a farm at Beaton in 1913.  He died at Beaton in 1926 at age 60.  Elizabeth Burbridge died at Revelstoke in 1949 at age 82.

George Burbridge signed his enlistment papers February 29, 1916 at Revelstoke. His regimental number was 687847. He was 24 years old, single, 5’ 6” tall with brown hair and blue eyes. His religious affiliation was Anglican. He was medically examined by a Revelstoke physician, Dr. W.H. Sutherland.

 George Burbridge died October 30, 1917 during the battle of Passchendaele.  He was 26 years old at the time of his death and was a Private with “A” Company Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario) Regiment.  The battalion number is unknown at this time, though his attestation paper noted that he had been assigned to the 172nd Battalion.  His body was never found or identified and his name is memorialized on the Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial, Belgium.

 His name is inscribed on the Courthouse and Cenotaph plaques under the Arrowhead section.

The community of Beaton on the north east arm of the Upper Arrow Lake, circa 1910.