Eli enlisted in the army in September 1914 in Ulverston and joined the 6th Battalion King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment as a Private with Service No 14777. The 6th Battalion embarked for Egypt on 13 June 1915 and arrived in Gallipoli on 6 July. The 8th Welsh (Pioneer) Battalion were also serving in Gallipoli. The 8th Welsh had suffered heavy losses due to casualties and illness and were evacuated from Helles following the final Turkish attacks on 8th/9th January 1916 to Egypt. At some point, Eli seems to have been transferred to the Welsh regiment and in the war diaries of the 6th December 1915 it was stated that ‘a draft of 75 men arrived tonight mostly from the old 8th battalion’. This is not unusual, as Peter Donnelly of the King’s Own Regimental Museum tells us, there was possibly up to 20,000 soldiers who transferred from the King’s Own to other regiments if they needed extra troops during WW1. Both the 6th K.O.R.L.  and the 8th Welsh were then relocated to Mesopotamia on 12th February 1916, joining the Tigris Corps on the 27th March and were amongst the first troops to enter Baghdad when it fell on the 11th March 1917. The 8th Welsh Regiment Diary of July 1917 written by Major R Peel Yates Commanding 8th Battalion Welch Regiment of Pioneers was from Sindiyeh and states: “Work went on as last month. A & C companies finishing pulling up the rails needed and D company linked up with the branch line from Sumaikchan at the end of the month. The month has been very hot and practically no work has been done between 8am and 6pm. 6 men died of heat stroke and 1 man drowned whilst bathing”. Eli Burns was one of the men who died of heat stroke.