Name
Bertie Forster
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/07/1918
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
39832
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
COLOGNE SOUTHERN CEMETERY
XIV.D.20
Germany
UK & Other Memorials
Stanstead Abbotts Village Memorial
Not on the Wormley memorials
Pre War
Born 1890 in Sittingbourne, Kent to Leonard Thomas and Emma Forster. Baptised on 15 February 1890 at Sittingbourne. 1911 Census: living with parents and brothers, Albert and Vallance and sister Lily. at Fernlee Villas, Glebe Road, Warlingham, Surrey. His father was a labourer and was working as a butcher. Married Ada Mary Payne in 1913 at Godstone, Surrey, who later lived at 4 Myddleton Villas, Church Lane, Wormley, Herts.
Wartime Service
Enlisted in Bedfordshire Regiment as Private No 39832 and served in 2nd Battalion. At the end of June his unit were ordered to attack German held villages of Senlis and Bouzincourt. The assault began at 0935 and was initially a success but a German counter attack forced most of the Bedfords from the positions they had captured. The German trench changed hands twice more during the day until another enemy attack at 2050 forced most of the British troops to retreat; Bertie died in a German hospital in Weiden, Nr. Cologne, Germany, as prisoner of war.
The cemetery in which he is buried was used for the burial of over 1000 Commonwealth servicemen brought there from a number of cemeteries from all over Germany.
Additional Information
War gratuity of £7 awarded to widow Ada.
Acknowledgments
Terry Collins, Brenda Palmer
