We regret to advise of the death of Lance Corporal David Sneddon Burrows (Ret’d) of Grande Prairie AB on 6 February 2014 at the age of 89 years.
In 1927, his parents emigrated from Scotland with twelve children and settled 20 kilometres east of Grande Prairie AB in Glen Leslie where they purchased farmland. David attended the Somme School from 1931 to 1939 at which time he worked on the family farm.
David was a veteran of the Second World War. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Engineers on 14 October 1942 in Grande Prairie. He trained in Edmonton at the Prince of Wales Armouries until December 1942 and was then posted to A6 Canadian Engineer Training Centre in Chilliwack BC. He remained there until September 1943. After posting to Hamilton ON and Camp Debert NS, he sailed for England as part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division Engineers. He landed in Normandy on D-Day and served throughout the Battle of Normandy and into the Low Countries. He was discharged in 1945. David met and married his wife in England. They settled in Grande Prairie and David quickly got a job driving a horse-drawn milk wagon and later at Imperial Motors. They returned to England in 1956, but later divorced. David returned to Grande Prairie.
A Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, 12 February 2014 at 2:00 PM at Oliver’s Funeral Chapel. In memory of David, memorial donations may be made to Grande Prairie Hospice Palliative Care Society (P.O. Box 21215 Grande Prairie, AB T8V 6W7). David is buried in the Glen Leslie Cemetery.
A Family Tradition of Service
One of David’s brothers, Alex, served in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment through Sicily and onto the Italian mainland. He was badly wounded at Ortona in December 1943 and returned to Canada in the summer of 1944.
Another brother, George was a gunner. He too was wounded. He spent from September 1944 until April 1945 in hospital re-joining his regiment two weeks before the war’s end. George later served in Korea, leaving the Army in 1959.
A third brother, Hector served in the Italian and Northwest European theatres with the Calgary Tanks.
A fourth brother, Thomas served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the war. After falling ill in England in 1941, he returned to Canada and served at the Suffield Experimental Station until the end of the war. A fifth brother, Bill, served in the Royal Canadian Navy on both coasts from 1942 until the war ended.
