Gone for a Burton
Yesterday when my colleague was retrieving some files from our back up tapes at work, it became apparent that one of the tapes was missing from the set. Now I new that one of the tapes had recently broken. One of our drives had decided to snap the tape, so I told him "one of the tapes had recently gone for a Burton".
He looked at me and asked with a wry grin "Why a Burton?". Of course I did not have any idea why it had gone for a Burton, it was just a phrase that my Nan uses when something gets broken, lost or falls over. I had used this phrase rather than saying the backup tape was busted!
This question of why 'going for a Burton'? rather than going for anything else made me wonder about the origins of going for a Burton. I decided to investigate why this phrase had come about. After a bit of searching on the internet I have been able to find that there are various explanations to its origin, but the one I think is most likely to have given rise to the phrase relates to a strapline for a prewar beer advert.
Burton's were a brewery who have now gone out of business, but were popular beer brewers in the yesteryear, and it would have been a popular drink with the men of this period. Therefore it would make sense for a person who was missing from a group to be accused of nipping down the pub for a quick Burton.
During the war as I understand it, "gone for a Burton" was used as a kind of slang term, referring to pilots who were killed or missing in action.
So there you have it, if you have ever wondered about how the phrase gone for a Burton has come about, hopefully this blog has enlightened you.