David John Burbridge was born in Horsham, Sussex on 6 Sept 1886 to parents Joseph Henry and Ellen Mary (nee Brown). He married Ella Kate Stacey West at the Wesleyan Chapel, Thame on 29 June 1911. They had two children Ivy Doreen, born 14 Sep 1912 in York and Stanley David, born 11 July 1914 in Thame (died 1917).

They lived at Garfield, Upper High Street, Thame. Ivy (known as Joy) went on to marry the prominent violinist Alfredo Campoli. When David joined the army at age 28 he gave his trade as a motor engineer.

He joined the Army Service Corps at Coventry on 18 August 1915 (number M2117262) and was accepted for machine gun service. In February 1916 he was posted to East Africa, arriving in Mombasa on 16 March 1916 aboard the troopship HMT Huntsgreen.

By 27 June 1916 he had been promoted to Acting Corporal and was attached to the 4th Light Armoured Battery at Dodoma, where he contracted malaria in Jan 1917. By 12 March 1917 he was in hospital in Dar es Salam suffering from dysentery, eventually dying of the disease on 23 April 1917.

He is buried in Dar es Salam War Cemetery, Tanzania, and is remembered on Thame War Memorial and on St Mary’s Church Memorial Board.