Name
Bertram Trevitt
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Company Sergeant Major
13543
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ABBEVILLE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
IV. D. 16.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth UDC Memorial, St Mary’s Church, Rickmansworth
Pre War
Cecil Bertram Trevitt was born in 1880, son of John and Alice Trevitt. His birth was registered at Atcham, Shropshire and he was baptised at St Alkmund in Shrewsbury.
In 1881 his family were living at 37 North Street, Shrewsbury, his father John being a commercial traveller. In 1891 he was living with his parents, John and Alice, at the Coach and Horses Inn, Lapsley, Cannock, Staffordshire where his aunt, Ellen Trevitt, was the Inn Proprietor. He had a sister Edith aged 9 and a brother John, aged 5.
It is possible that he was a pupil at Meole Brace School in Shrewbury in 1893. His mother died in 1900 and his father, John moved to Cardiff where, in 1901, he was living with his children Edith, Winifred, Jack and Constance. Bertram Trevitt, however, had moved to Stafford where in 1901, aged 21, he was a boarder, living with William Agar at 16 Tipping Street and working as a draper’s assistant.
He could not be found in the 1911 census but at some point he moved to Rickmansworth, as the electoral register in 1915 shows he was a lodger with Mrs Griffin, 30 Church Street, Rickmansworth.
Wartime Service
Bertram Trevitt enlisted at Watford and entered France with the 7th Battalion in July 1915.
From the beginning of July 1916 the Bedfordshire Regiment, 7th Battalion were involved in the offensive of the Battle of the Somme. The War diaries of give accounts of heavy fighting, for instance on 14th July ‘Very heavy artillery battle raged during the entire night and did not cease till after dawn.’
Company Sergeant Major Trevitt was presumably wounded around this time and was taken to the No.2 Stationary Hospital in Abbeville where he died of his wounds on 20th July 1916.
Additional Information
His effects of £23 19s 5 and a War gratuity of £15 10s were shared between Mrs Florence Ada Griffin and Miss Etty M. Oliver. His sister, Mrs G M Rowland of Toronto, Canada, applied for the 1914-15 Star due to her brother.
Acknowledgments
Pat Hamilton
Malcolm Lennox, Pat Hamilton
