Harrogate Herald - 23rd May 1917

Chats with the Wounded

Private Burgess, of the Middlesex, is in the Heatherdene Hospital with the loss of the right leg below the knee. It was during the battle of the Somme. He was in the front line trenches where a rifle grenade came over and dropped by his side. These grenades are fired from a rifle at an angle almost perpendicular into air, and they fall nearly straight and explode on impact. This particular grenade wounded three or four others besides Burgess, though the latter got the full force of the explosion on the lower part of the leg. When he was taken down to the clearing station it was found necessary to amputate the limb. He is doing nicely and expects eventually to go to the Roehampton Hospital and be fitted with an artificial limb.