[5] He left South Africa for home on the SS Avondale Castle with other members of the battalion in late December 1902.

[7] During the next five years Burnett saw action in Northern Nigeria, contracted blackwater fever, was promoted to lieutenant and was twice mentioned in despatches.

[12] Burnett married Sybil Pack-Beresford just six days before his first posting as a Royal Flying Corps wing adjutant, which brought a temporary promotion to captain.

[2] With a promotion to temporary lieutenant colonel on 8 October 1917,[15] Burnett was granted command of the Flying Corps' Fifth Wing[2] which was operating in Palestine.

Following his wing's contribution to the British victory in the Battle of Jerusalem in December 1917, Burnett was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

[18] By the close of the war, Burnett had transferred to the newly formed Royal Air Force (RAF) and the next few years of his military career were to involve many changes of post.

In early 1931, he returned to the United Kingdom and he was appointed to the double-hatted position of Deputy Chief of the Air Staff and Director of Operations and Intelligence.

[2][10] In July 1939, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Burnett was appointed an additional Inspector-General of the RAF[30] and in August he was a member of British military mission to the Soviet Union.

Apart from the fact that by 1940 Burnett was due for retirement and his health was not at its best, the choice of a British officer over an Australian one caused open resentment in many quarters of the RAAF.

[1][31] After discussions between the British and Australian governments, Burnett was selected and given an acting promotion to air chief marshal,[32] a rank he subsequently retained.

Unlike Goble and several other senior RAAF commanders, Burnett believed that his most important task was to implement EATS to the full and thereby increase Australia's ability to provide aircrew to the RAF.

McEwen recalled in his memoirs that "Burnett wanted to spend amounts of money apparently without thought for where it was coming from while I was the one who had to accept responsibility for all expenditure".

[34] Burnett also had a strained working relationship with Arthur Drakeford, who replaced McEwen as minister for air in October 1941 following the fall of the Fadden government.

It had also been widely argued that Burnett's focus on the European theatre resulted in the RAAF lacking sufficient defensive strength and by 1942 the threat of invasion by Japan was growing.

In this role, Burnett was responsible for ATC squadrons in Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Bedfordshire.

[36][37] By 1945 Burnett remained as commandant[38] but his health was declining and on 9 April 1945 he died of a coronary thrombosis at the Princess Mary Hospital at RAF Halton.