Lives of the First World War

Rifleman William Burgess, Royal Irish Rifles. He was my Great Grandmother, Mary Jane Coulter, youngest brother. He enlisted in Young Civilian Volunteers in 1915, he is recorded to have suffered from shellshocked, (what we now refer to as PTSD), and also shot in the arm. He had skin grafts and plates as it as it was shattered. He returned to Belfast and was Hospitalised in the UVF Hospital (now the Somme Hospital) in 1917. He married his girlfriend of the time whilst convalescing and she gave birth to a baby girl. His wife would die shortly after due to the flu epidemic just before the Armistice. Sad story.

Rifleman William Burgess, Royal Irish Rifles. He was my Great Grandmother, Mary Jane Coulter, youngest brother. He enlisted in Young Civilian Volunteers in 1915, he is recorded to have suffered from shellshocked, (what we now refer to as PTSD), and also shot in the arm. He had skin grafts and plates as it as it was shattered. He returned to Belfast and was Hospitalised in the UVF Hospital (now the Somme Hospital) in 1917. He married his girlfriend of the time whilst convalescing and she gave birth to a baby girl. His wife would die shortly after due to the flu epidemic just before the Armistice. Sad story.