The Right Reverend Walter Burd, D.C.M., D.D.
1888 - 1939
Walter in 1917, in Canada just before re-enlisting
Born in Cork, Ireland, on February 23rd 1888, Walter was the fifth child of Braham Burd, an army schoolteacher who had served with the British Army for thirty years. Braham died when Walter was only twelve and Walter moved back to the family home area of Sheffield and finished his studies and managed to become an accomplished industrial chemist. In 1912 he answered the call of the Principal of Emmanuel College in Saskatoon Canada to minister to the masses of British immigrants flooding the Prairies, in Western Canada. He traveled to Saskatoon in 1913 and enrolled in Emmanual College to study theology.

At the breakout of war he immediately joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force. According to his attestation paper signed on October 26th 1914 (here, front - back) he signed up into the 105th Regiment, the Saskatoon Fusiliers and was assigned to the 28th Bn of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Serving with distinction in the battalion and in January 1916 he participated in a trench raid that culminated in an act of bravery that was recognised with the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)

Extract from the London Gazette March 15th 1916
"Sergeant Walter Burd, awarded the Distinguished Conduct medal for conspicuous gallantry in the field. He led the leading bombing party over the parapet and attacked a machine gun emplacement. He continued bombing out a party of the enemy until he was seriously wounded, and then insisted on coming back alone"

As a result of the severity of his wounds he was evacuated to Canada and subsequently discharged as medically unfit and he returned to Canada to resume theological studies at Wycliffe College, Toronto. However the war did not let him rest. His younger brother, Frederick Braham Burd, was a 2Lt in the 13th Bn of the London Regt. Frederick was killed on September 20th 1917 at St Julien, Passchendale: details here.

The death of Frederick upset Walter so much that he re-enlisted, in Toronto, (attestation papers here, front - back), in the Imperial Forces. In London he was sent to the 28th Bn the London Regt, the Artists' Rifles, not the 13th Bn (Frederick's) that he had requested he be allowed to join. After his commission he was assigned to the Royal Worcestershire Regt on the 14th of August 1918. He transferred to the Saskatchewan Regt on 17th December of 1918 (transfer papers here).

Arriving back in Saskatoon with his new bride, the former Elizabeth (Beth) Millington he re-enrolled at Wycliffe and graduated in 1920.

Walter then pursued the works of the church, in many capacities but most memorably as the Bishop of Saskatoon from December 1932 until he retired due to ill health in the Spring of 1939. He retired and moved to Victoria B.C. and died on August 2nd 1939. He and his wife, who had been killed in a car accident in 1937, now rest in the churchyard of St Mary's in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Acknowledgements:
The major portion of the biographical information came from a Memoir given to me by his son, Frederick Burd. The full memoir may be read here.

Supporting documents

  • Walter Burd's medal card here
  • Walter Burd's Birth/marriage Certificate (pdf file) here the image must be rotated in the reader to be viewed properly
  • Walter Burd's Death Certificate here
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