2nd Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment.
Killed in action on Friday 12th March 1915 at Neuve Chapelle, age 27.
Buried at Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium.
Former student of Paper Making.
John was born on 28th October 1887 at Aylesford, Kent to William Warwick de Buriatte, a paper mill owner, and his first wife Mary. He was educated at Slough Secondary School and Dulwich College before entering the Faculty of Technology in 1905 to study Paper Making. In 1908 he was awarded a Certificate in Technology (Applied Chemistry). He played Rugby Union for Bowden Rangers. John joined his fathers firm in 1911, Wraysbury Paper Mills, and went to the United States to gain experience in works’ methods.
In 1912 John joined the 28th Battalion London Regiment (Artists Rifles) and distinguished himself in Bayonet fighting. He was chosen to compete in a team that went through to the finals at Olympia in 1913, for which each member received a special bronze medal. Early in the war John was promoted to Sergeant and the unit went to France on 28th October 1914. On 14th February 1915 he was given a commission in the 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment. He was killed while leading his platoon at Lindenhoek, during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, and buried just 20 yards behind the trenches. Commonwealth War Graves Commission records show that he was reburied in 1920 during a concentration of graves. John’s father used words from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Requiem” for his son’s headstone inscription: “Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie.”
John’s older brother, Warwick Huxley de Buriatte served with the Royal Garrison Artillery and died in a motorbike accident in Enfield, Middlesex, on the 19th October 1918.