Name
Bert Borrett
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/08/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
34910
London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
8th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. SOUPLET BRITISH CEMETERY
III. BB. 22.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials
Pre War
Bert (Bertie) John Borrett was born in 1891 Luddenham, Suffolk, the son of Frederick and Elizabeth Borrett and one of five children, although died in infancy.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at Chadwell St Mary, Orsett, Essex, where his father was working as a horseman on a farm. By 1911 They had moved to Rowan House, Hartford End, nr Chelmsford, Essex, at which time Bertie was working as a stockman on a farm.
He married Violet Elizabeth Sarah Borrett [perhaps a distant relative] in 1913 and their daughter Elsie May was born 12 January 1915, being baptised on 21 February 1915 at Caldecote, Herts. The address on pension records was given as Caldecote, Baldock, Herts.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hitchin, Herts and joined 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, (London Regiment, Post Office Rifles) and was promoted to Lance Corporal.
He was wounded in action during the Battle of the Somme and taken prisoner. It was officially accepted that he died of his wounds on 6 August 1916 as a prisoner of war, aged 25, but his family were not informed until the following year.
Bertie was initially buried in St Martin's churchyard, St Quentin, France but was reinterred at St Souplet British Cemetery, France at the end of the war.
Additional Information
His widow Violet received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £1 7s 8d. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week for herself and daughter Elsie, which was later increased to 18s 9d a week.
Violet remarried in 1919 to Bertie Goodchild and on the 1921 Census they were living in Caldecote with their daughter Gertrude and her daughter Elsie Borrett.
An 'In Memoriam' notice in the Biggleswade Chronicle of 10 August 1923 confirmed that Bertie had died aged 25 as a prisoner of war in Germany and his parents were living at Stratton Farm Cottage, Biggleswade.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, somme-roll-of-honour.com
