For more than 25 years, this man has tended the grave of a stranger

AN ENGLISHMAN has spent 25 years lovingly tending the grave of a total stranger — a young RAAF airman from Melbourne who was killed in WWII.

RAAF Flight Lt Adam Gunthorpe lays a wreath on the grave of Warrant Officer John Burrows on Anzac Day, 2018.

FOR more than quarter of a century, Englishman Wayne Hartshorne has tended the grave of a stranger — a young Melbourne airman killed in action during World War II.

Wayne first stumbled across the grave of Warrant Officer John Burrows at Cannock Cemetery in Staffordshire while visiting his own grandparents’ resting place, and noticed it was unkempt and overgrown.

So in an extraordinary act of kindness, Wayne made it his mission to lovingly tend the gravesite on regular visits as a sign of respect to the lost RAAF navigator.

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RAAF Warrant Officer John Benjamin Burrows, pictured at age 19.

Wayne Hartshorne arranged for Flight Lieutenant Adam Gunthorpe from the RAAF to lay a wreath at Warrant Officer John Burrows’ grave on Anzac Day, 2018.

“To be able to look after the grave is the least I could do for him,” says the 52-year-old greenkeeper.

“He came all this way and never got the chance to go home.”

This year, the father of three achieved his long-held dream of tracking down Burrows’ family in Melbourne, who are understandably stunned at his remarkable generosity.

Burrows was killed on April 5, 1943, when his plane crashed in heavy fog on return to the UK after coming under heavy fire while flying over German-occupied France.

Burrows was only 21 when he died, and had married a local woman only months earlier. His wife wanted him buried locally, but soon after she remarried and moved to the US.

Last Anzac Day, Wayne arranged for Australian Flight Lieutenant Adam Gunthorpe to visit the grave and lay a wreath, completing the last of three goals.

RAAF Flight Lt Adam Gunthorpe lays a wreath on the grave of Warrant Officer John Burrows on Anzac Day, 2018.

RAAF Flight Lt Adam Gunthorpe salutes the grave of Warrant Officer John Burrows.

“It was on my list — keep his resting place tidy, contact relatives, and to get his grave recognised on Anzac Day,” Wayne says.

“It was something I’d waited 25 years to see, but never thought would happen.”

Burrows’ nephew, Howard, visited the grave in the 1980s, and again in the 1990s, when he was stunned to discover someone was obviously caring for the grave.

The family contacted the cemetery seeking answers and offering to contribute to the upkeep, but heard nothing, perhaps because Wayne had never made his work known.

“I was a man of mystery!” he says.

It was only early this year that a Melbourne woman with an interest in genealogy saw a BBC story about Wayne, and contacted the Melbourne cemetery that was Burrows’ sister’s final resting place.

Burrows’ niece, Cath Foster, says the family was stunned to hear from the cemetery, and then make contact with Wayne and learn the story.

“I am just absolutely astounded,” says Cath, from Hampton Park in Melbourne’s southeast.

“He is a wonderful man with a great heart, and he’s so humble about it as well.

“With each season changing, he sends me a new photo — ‘Here you go, this is what’s blooming at the moment!’

“It has definitely restored my faith in human nature.”

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