Private Clifford Edward Burns
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- WX7702
- Unit
- 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion
- Cause of death
- Died as Prisoner of War
- Place of death
- Sandakan, Borneo
- Date of death
- 4 February 1945
- Age
- 28
- Plaque number
- L173A
- Co-located plaques
- L173 - PTE Harold Lear
- Dedicated by
- Family on 21 May 2011
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Private Clifford Edward Burns of 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion was born in December 1916 at Dandenong, Victoria. He had five brothers and three sisters and they were the children of Joseph and Amy Burns of Port Pirie, South Australia and later Kalgoorlie.
He left school at 15 to work in the mines at Kalgoorlie with his father and a brother.
Clifford enlisted at Westonia in August 1940 and after training at Northam Military Camp was assigned to 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion.
The Battalion came together at Northam, the moved to Adelaide, to Darwin and then to Singapore.
After the surrender, Clifford was sent with B force to Sandakan to work on the airfield construction.
Private Clifford Edward Burns, service number WX7702, died as a prisoner of war on the Sandakan-Ranau death march with two of his good mates, Alex Hack and Jack Halligan, on 4 February 1945. He was 28 years of age.