Gone for a Burton

This piece of British slang is best documented in Royal Air Force use during the Second World War, where it grimly meant a pilot had been killed or a plane destroyed. Where "Burton" itself comes from is genuinely unresolved. One theory ties it to adverts for Burton beer, brewed in Burton-upon-Trent, implying the missing man had simply "gone to the pub." Another points to Burton's, the menswear chain, on the dark joke that a dead airman had effectively "gone for" (been measured for) his last suit. No wartime source pins down which, if either, is correct.