Name
Bertie Ford
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/10/1915
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
981
Royal Fusiliers *1
8th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY
IV.E.B7
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St. Thomas’ Church Memorial, West Hyde
Pre War
Bertie was born on the 6th of September 1893 in West Hyde and baptised there on the 29th of October, the son of Stephen and Bessie (nee Crossman) Ford. Stephen was an Agricultural Labourer and shortly after their marriage he and Bessie were living Bradbury Cottages, Pleasant Place, Rickmansworth.
Bessie died in 1894 and was buried in West Hyde on the 15th of November. In 1901 Bertie age 7 was living Horn Hill. Chalfont St Giles with his father, now a Servant/Gardener, his brother Frank age 9, and his uncle Thomas Ford, a Carter. In 1911 age 17 he was a Farm Labourer living 14 Royal Exchange, West Hyde, with his father and brother Frank.
Recorded as enlisting in Uxbridge, Middlesex.
Wartime Service
The 8th Battalion landed in France on the 30th/31st of May 1915 as part of 36th Brigade 12th (Eastern) Division, taking part in the Battle of Loos in September. This included operations around the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a mining area in which both sides made extensive use of underground mine warfare.
On the 25th of September 1915 the British Army launched a major attack against the German defences between La Bassee and the village of Loos. This was the last attempt to drive the Germans from France before the onset of winter. The German defences were too strong and losses were heavy for little gains. 12th Division did not come into the line until the 1st of October when the main fighting was over. It was given the task of holding and consolidating what had become the new British line, in what was known as the Quarries Sector, by making minor attacks and beating off similar German ones.
Bertie died of wounds on the 4th of October, presumably sustained in one of these minor actions.
Additional Information
*1 More correctly (City of London) Bn. London Regiment (Post Office Rifles).
Acknowledgments
P Szelewski, Mike Collins
