Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

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Biographical Notes

William Burrell was born on 24 July 1895 at Wyoming, USA, the son of Scottish-born Adam Guthrie Burrell and Clara (Clarissa) Jane née Scott. Adam and Clara had married in 1886 at Ballina, Ireland. Adam was the son of William Burrell, shipowner of Glasgow, and a brother of Sir William Burrell, Hetton Castle, Berwickshire. In 1891, with their daughter Isabella and son Robert, they were living at Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where Adam was a marine engineer. In 1893, Adam , Clara and their three children travelled to Wyoming, USA, where William was born in 1895. Some time after they went to Cape Town, South Africa, where son Adam was born. In 1902 William and his older brothers George and Robert started at Arthur Street School in Dunedin, having come from the Marist Brothers School in Cape Town. By this time their father was a medical practitioner. Just three months later they transferred to Methven. From there William attended successively Akaroa, East Oxford and Rangiora schools, before going to Cave and Pleasant Pointschools. The family was at Oxford,Canterbury, when another son was born - Roderick Scott Burrell. Adam Guthrie Burrell, senior, died in 1907. Clara remarried in 1911 to William Alexander McCullough. In October 1915, after leaving the Bank of Australasia in Timaru and not long before enlisting, William won the three competitions in a golf championship at Stratford, the prizes being a silver cigarette case and £3 10s worth of tickets in a land raffle. Lieutenant-Sergeant W. Burrell returned to New Zealand per the "Giessen" in August 1919. Sometime after the war he went to England. There in 1922 at Stockport, Cheshire, he married Ethel Gertrude Whittaker. Their daughter, Patricia Clara Jane Mary Burrell was born in 1924 at Stockport, a son, William M. S. Burrell was born in 1926 at Stockport, and a second son was born in 1934. In early 1933 William and Ethel and their two children visited New Zealand. After the death of their son William in 1936, William, a cotton salesman, and Ethel and family returned to new Zealand where they resided at Timaru, Geraldine, Taiko and Waimate. William Burrell served in the Home Guard in World War II. In June 1947 Major Burrell was at Waimate and intended to return to England permanently in July of that year. By 1949 he was residing at Saxmundham, Suffolk, England.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [17 December 2017]; Timaru Herald, 19 October 1915, 25 July 1919 (Papers Past) [17 December 2017]; School Admission records (Dunedin, Canternury, Waimakariri & South Canterbury Nramvhes NZSG] [17 December 2017]; Shipping records (ancestry.com.au) [18 December 2017]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [18 December 2017]

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

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