Boldly signed J. W. Burke, this cabinet photograph  depicts Staff/Garrison Sergeant Major J. W. "Jack" Burke . Burke inscribed a dedication to his sister on the card's reverse side that reads: "To my dearest sister Annie, from her fond brother Jack, as a remembrance of his commissioning the 29th year of his army service. 12 August 1889".  We can infer burke's original attestation date as sometime around 1869.

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An entry in the November 1885 edition of The Monthly Army List mentions Burke as a Staff/Garrison Sergeant Major stationed in Barbados with his commissioning date of 26 June 1885. Ten years later the November 1895 edition of The Monthly Army List shows Burke still stationed in Barbados. Burke had either retied or died by March 1898 since his name fails to appear in that edition of The Monthly Army List.

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Little else has turned up regarding Burke. In the photo Burke wears a single campaign medal with an ornate suspender and one clasp.

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There is a possibility that the J. W. Burke pictured above is the same man the Colour Sergeant No. 3077 J. W. Burke, 3/60th Rifles listed in the battalion's medal roll for the 1877-79 South Africa Medal. by the time the roll was completed at Pietermaritzburg, Natal in 1880 Colour Sergeant Burke was posted to the battalion depot at Winchester and did not take part in the 3/60th subsequent actions in the Transvaal (1881) of Egypt (1882).

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Cabinet Photograph

W. G. Cooper - Photographer

Barbados

12 August 1889