The Salvation Army was active in Cottingham in 1915. Many of them fought in the war and survived. The only member of the Salvation Army Band to lose his life in the war was Robert Ernest Bursell, when he was sixteen, though he looks younger.

Robert Ernest Bursell (born 1899) was the son of Frederick, a labourer with Cottingham Urban District Council, and Nellie Bursell of 131 Northgate. Both Robert and his older brother Arthur were in the band. There were six children in the family, three boys and three girls. In addition three girls had died (1911 census). Little is know about Robert. He will have been called up in 1916 or, if they had waited until he was 18 years old, 1917. He served in France/Flanders first with the West Yorkshire Regiment and then with the 6th Batallion of Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. He was killed in action on August 24th 1918, probably somewhere near the River Ancre, where the Allies were pushing the Germans back East again, as he is buried in Meaulte Cemetery, which is in that area. Robert Bursell is recorded on the Cottingham Memorial.