Gone for a Burton, Part II
Posted by ESC on October 23, 1999
In Reply to: Go for a Burton posted by ESC on October 11, 1999
: : does anyone know of the origin of gone for a burton
: : is it anything to do with the brewing industry in the uk?
: From The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang by John Ayto & John Simpson (Oxford University Press, 1992): burton, noun. Also "Burton, to go for a." Brit. of a pilot; to be killed, of a person or thing: to be missing, ruined, destroyed. 1941-. E. Roberts "I can see those flowers going for a burton." . (Origin unknown; perhaps connected with Burton type of beer from Burton-on-Trent.)
PART II
"Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions" by
Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey (Sheridan House; originally
published in London in 1983): "Gone for a burton - Popular amongst
airmen of World War II to describe those missing or killed in action.
It is one of several expressions which transferred from the navy
when its air wing was merged into the RAF in 1918. There are two
derivations, each of them plausible. The first refers to a 'Spanish
Burton' which was an ingenious but complicated pulley arrangement
made up of three blocks. Indeed so complicated was the Spanish Burton,
and so rarely used that hardly anyone could remember how to do it.
Thus it became the standard answer to anyone in authority enquiring
the whereabouts of a missing member of a working part 'he's gone
for a burton'. The other explanation comes from the term 'a-burton'
an unusual method of stowing wooden casks or barrels sideways across
the ship's hold. The advantage of this was that they took up less
space and were individually more accessible than when stowed in
the fore-and-aft line. The disadvantage, however, and the reason
why it was rarely employed, was that the entire stowage could easily
collapse. Hence the implication of knocking a man over."