McBurney, Edward Wilson (Teddy)

Engineer Lieutenant

Transport Service, Royal Navy

Died on Wednesday 2 July 1919 (aged 28)

Buried at sea

Commemorated:

First Comber Presbyterian Church

McBurney Family Headstone in Comber Cemetery

Brother of Second Lieutenant James Wilson McBurney

BIOGRAPHY

Edward Wilson McBurney was born on 29 December 1890 in the townland of Ballymagreehan and he was the eldest son of Thomas and Anna McBurney (nee Wilson) who were married on 14 November 1890 in First Newtownards Presbyterian Church.  Thomas McBurney from Ballyhenny was a son of Thomas McBurney, a farmer.  Anna Wilson (aged 20) from Newtownards was a daughter of Edward Wilson, a farmer.

The McBurney family lived at Moatville, 17 Ballyrickard, Comber.

Thomas McBurney was a farmer and he and Anna had ten children:

Edward Wilson (Teddy, born 29 December 1890 in Ballymagreehan)

Rose Mary (May, born 13 February 1892 in Ballyrickard)

Thomas (born 12 February 1893 in Ballyrickard)

Anna Wilson (Nan, born 4 October 1894 in Ballyrickard)

Elizabeth Wilson (Bessie, born 24 September 1895 in Ballyrickard)

Jeannie (born 7 April 1897 in Ballyrickard)

James Wilson (Jim, born 9 August 1898 in Ballyrickard)

Harriet (born 7 November 1900 in Ballyrickard)

Margaret Turner McCartney (Maggie, born 6 January 1903 in Ballyrickard; died of enteritis 7 September 1903)

Margaret Turner (born 9 October 1905 in Ballyrickard)

The McBurney family built Moatville in 1903.

Jeannie McBurney was engaged to be married to Lieutenant Sam Geddis who died on active service on 19 September 1918.  Jeannie never married.

On 15 April 1919 Nan McBurney married Lieutenant Robin Wilson by special licence.  The ceremony was conducted by the Rev J.K.L. McKean and took place at Moatville.

In civilian life Teddy McBurney worked as an apprentice engine fitter in the Harland & Wolff Shipyard Belfast and in 1911 he was boarding with Margaret Hawthorne and her family in Westland Road, Belfast.  During his apprenticeship he made a stained glass window which was installed in Moatville at the rear of the house.

Teddy joined the Royal Naval Reserve and became a career seaman.  During the Great War he served in the Royal Navy Transport Service and he was 28 when he died on 2 July 1919 during a trans-Atlantic trip.  He was buried at sea.  His family commissioned a stained-glass window from Clokey Stained Glass in Belfast and this was installed in Moatville at the front of the house.

Engineer Lieutenant Edward Wilson McBurney is commemorated in First Comber Presbyterian Church and on the McBurney Family Headstone in Comber Cemetery.

In naval records it is recorded that his resignation on grounds of ill-heath was accepted on 1 February 1915.