William 'Billy' Burns, the Worcestershire fast bowler and middle-order batsman who once took a hat-trick against Gloucestershire and bowled out the Australians at Worcester in 1909, was killed near Contalmaison during the Battle of the Somme on 7 July 1916. He was 32.
Burns was born in Bradford and qualified for Worcestershire by residence. His career figures — over 6,000 first-class runs and 367 wickets — would in any other generation have given him several Tests.
He enlisted in 1914 with the West Yorkshires, his home regiment, and was commissioned in 1915. By summer 1916 his battalion was attached to the 23rd Division on the Somme.
Burns was a Worcestershire professional who had taken 100 wickets in a season three times and, more unusually, was a powerful middle-order hitter — he scored 196 not out against Warwickshire in 1913. He was once chosen for an England trial but was never capped. When war came he enlisted in the West Yorkshire Regiment and was commissioned. On 7 July 1916, attached to the 13th Battalion, he was killed leading his platoon in the attack on Contalmaison village in the early stages of the Somme offensive. His body was buried in the field but the marker was lost; he is now commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
1903: First-class debut for Worcestershire
1908: Chosen for an England trial
1913: Scores 196 not out against Warwickshire
7 Jul 1916: Killed at Contalmaison, Somme
1883
William Beaumont Burns born in Bradford
1903
Worcestershire debut
1913
Scores 196 not out v Warwickshire
1914
Enlists in the West Yorkshire Regiment
7 Jul 1916
Killed at Contalmaison
“A heavy hitter and a willing bowler — the perfect county professional.”
His Thiepval Memorial inscription is one of more than 70,000 names of British soldiers with no known grave from the Somme campaign. Worcestershire CCC included him on their war memorial at New Road.
A double-hundred-scoring all-rounder killed at Contalmaison without ever playing a Test.
Burns is one of three Worcestershire first-class cricketers killed in the First World War. The Wisden 1917 obituaries section singled him out as 'one of the heaviest losses to county cricket of the year'.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.