b. 04/1840 Devizes, Wiltshire. d. 22/02/1892 Devizes, Wiltshire.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 15/07/1881 Devizes, Wiltshire.
William Henry Burt was born in April 1840 in Devizes, Wiltshire, to Elizabeth Gundry Clark, age 28, and Joseph Burt, age 30. He was one of six children, with four sisters and a brother. On November 3rd 1877, he married Kathleen Maria Cripps in Devizes, and they had five children. He received his medal from the Mayoress of Devizes on 30th October 1881. He was an ironmonger and lived and worked at 41 Market Place, close to the scene of his AM action. He died in 1892 and is buried in Devizes Cemetery.
AM CITATION:
At two o’clock on the afternoon of the 15th July last, a fire broke out on the premises of Mr.’ Ernest Wellings, Italian Warehouseman, Market Place, Devizes. After the fire had been raging some time, and all the inmates of the house had effected their escape, it was reported that there was a certain quantity of gunpowder stored in the shop, and MR. BUKT at once volunteered to enter the burning premises and remove the case containing the gunpowder.. At this time a great body of flame was distinctly visible on the other side of the shop counter only a few feet distant from the spot where the gunpowder was deposited. It was under these circumstances that MR. BURT made his way into the shop, effecting his entrance through the window; and eventually succeeded in finding and removing the box containing ten or twelve pounds of gunpowder, thereby preventing an explosion, which might have been attended with serious loss of life amongst those necessarily engaged in dealing with the fire, as well as amongst the crowd of onlookers.
BURIAL LOCATION: DEVIZES CEMETERY, DEVIZES, WILTSHIRE.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD.
