Gone for a Burton

This was originally RAF slang for dead or presumed dead and dates from c. 1940. No one is quite sure of the origin. A Google search for its origin will deliver at least twenty different so-called origins. The most plausible origin is that drink was also RAF slang for the sea. A great many aircraft in those early days of the war came down in the ‘drink’ and Burton was obviously a proper noun, for which the best candidate was the famous Burton Ale rather than Montagu Burton the tailor. Thus, if pilots or crew went down in the sea, they could be said to have gone for a Burton, and this remains the most plausible origin.