Samuel Albert Burgoyne

An Engineman with H.M. Drifter Forward III, Samuel Albert died on 31st of March 1917 at the age of 37. 

Samuel was born at Ramsgate on 4 April 1880, a son of Robert and Sarah Burgoyne. He was baptised at Saint George’s Church, Ramsgate, on 5 October 1880. In 1881 his family lived at 33 Princes Street, Ramsgate. By 1891 they had moved to Lowestoft and lived at 247 Raglan Street. 

On 2 December 1900 Samuel married Annie Whiley at Saint Margaret’s Church, Lowestoft. Samuel was a fisherman and they both lived at Rotterdam Road. In 1901 they lived at Rotterdam Road and Samuel was a ‘fireman on a steamboat’. In 1911 they lived at 16 Rotterdam Road and Samuel was an engine ‘driver’ on a herring fishing steam drifter. Later Annie lived at 33 Saint Leonards Road, Kirkley. 

Samuel joined the Royal Naval Reserve on 11 February 1915 and served on the trawler Grace Lilian. At some point he joined the trawler Forward III.

On 31 March 1917 the Forward III was sailing in the North Seas, south of the Shipwash Light Vessel, and struck a mine and sank. All ten crew were lost.  

Samuel’s name appears on the War Memorial at Saint Margaret’s Church. 

Samuel's father, Robert, died in 1919 in the loss of the trawler Mistletoe.