Skip to main content

To search our directory of workers at HM Factory Gretna either enter any name, place of birth or place of death in the search box or if you know what their job was from select from the drop-down menu.

Photo of P Burton

P Burton

Birthplace County Durham Washington England

Biography

  • ‘Mrs Burton of Sunderland remembers: I later worked at Gretna Green and the winter (1917) was the coldest I ever remember. In our hostel our bottles of milk were just blocks of ice, and our towels had to be heated before we could use them, so you can guess what it was like working outside where I was loading trucks. King George and Queen Mary visited our factory and we gor new uniforms for the occasion.’ – G Routledge, Gretna’s Secret War, (Bookcase, 1999) p. 55.
  • ‘Emily Davies and Ethel Burnett were daughters of Sunderland shipyard workers, while Mrs. P. Burton’s father was a Durham miner.’ – Chris Brader, Timbertown Girls, (PhD Thesis, University of Warwick), p. 23.
  • ‘Mrs. Burton, from Newcastle, didn’t like being with Welsh girls, who insisted on speaking in their own language when together: ‘We didn’t like it because we knew they could speak English.’ — Chris Brader, Timbertown Girls, (PhD Thesis, University of Warwick), p. 26-7.
  • ‘Mrs. P. Burton, from Washington, Co. Durham, also cited the wages as an attraction. She mentioned the wartime patriotic appeal to females as a further reason.’ — Chris Brader, Timbertown Girls, (PhD Thesis, University of Warwick), p. 31.
  • ‘Mrs P. Burton sent part of her wages home to her mother in Washington, Co. Durham. Her father was a colliery worker and her two brothers had enlisted in the Army.’ — Chris Brader, Timbertown Girls, (PhD Thesis, University of Warwick), p. 105.
    • (Note: it appears that much of Chris Brader’s information on Mrs Burton comes from her interview that is kept at the Liddle archives: Liddle Archive, University of Leeds, Item 25, Mrs. Burton.)

Related by Category

Related by City - Washington

Related by County - County Durham

Related by Last Name - Burton

Connections Business Directory | Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors

Washington England

Translate »
BOOK NOW