In the Royal Navy Cemetery at Capuccini, Malta is the Commonwealth War Grave of  967EA  Engine Room Artificer Ernest Dale Burdon serving on H.M.S. Cornwallis with the Royal Naval Reserve who died 18/07/1915.

Colin Boyd has provided the following:

Ernest was born on 23rd January 1880 in South Shields to Robert Burdon, a Master Mariner and his wife Mary Ellen.  The family comprised of the parents, four sons, one daughter and Mary Ellen’s mother and sister were living at 13, Gladstone Terrace, South Shields.

By the 1911 Census Ernest was living with his widowed mother and grandmother at 52, Wouldhave Street, South Shields.  He was coming to the end of his apprenticeship with an electricity supply company.  On the census return Mary Ellen declared that she had given birth to ten children, five of whom had died.

Ernest enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve on 19th November 1911 when he was described as being 5 feet 10 inches tall with brown eyes and a dark complexion.  During his annual training he is noted as being employed as a fitter at Boldon Colliery, Palmers Shipyard in Jarrow,  at C.A. Parsons at Wallsend and finally at C.A. Parsons at Gateshead. On his records the South Shields address is crossed out.  Since his next of kin is noted as living in Gateshead it could be that the move coincided with his employment.

Ernest was mobilised on 3rd August 1914 and was posted to HMS Cornwallis, a pre-dreadnought battleship.

Ernest died in hospital on Malta on 18th July 1915 from the effects of Enteric Fever. His next of kin was his mother, Mary Ellen living at 44, Hillfield Street, Bensham, Gateshead.

Ernest Dale Burdon is remembered at Gateshead on G39.082 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.