Strickland, Bertie Charles

Bertie Charles was the eldest son of Charles and Annie (nee Stamford) Strickland, born at Ashwell on 16 August 1878.  He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

Bertie was first posted to the Army Reserve on 5 June 1916.  He was mobilised with the Middlesex Regiment, Regimental Number 37516 on the 19 August 1916.  He transferred to the 333^rd (HS) Works Company, Labour Corps, Regimental Number 179028 on 28 April 1917, and then to the 334^th (HS) Works Company on 3^rd May 1917.  Bertie served in England throughout the War.  He was discharged on 21 January 1919.  He survived the War.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

Before enlisting Bertie was a house painter and decorator.

Bertie married Mary Jane Cooke at St Mary’s Church, Ashwell on 6 October 1906. They had two daughters, Gertrude born on 8 April 1909 and Winifred Constance Mary born on 16 October 1911.  Gertrude contracted pneumonia and died on 28 October 1917.

The 1939 census shows them living in Ashwell with Bertie a house painter decorator.

Bertie had been living in Claybush Road, Ashwell when he died in the Three Counties Emergency Hospital, Stotfold, Bedfordshire on 19 May 1954.

Bertie Charles’s brothers, Eugene, Percy, Victor and William all served and survived the War.  His brother Oben died of wound on the Western Front in December 1917.