Name
Bertram Thomas Cooper
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/01/1917
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
31828
York and Lancaster Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 14 A and 14 B.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin Addenda to the Prirton Village Memorial
Biography
The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission list him as Private 31838 of the 6th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. Other information suggests that he was formerly Private 25643 in the Northamptonshire Regiment and that he enlisted in Hitchin.
Bertram was born around 1889 in Tilsworth, Bedfordshire and his parents were Frederick Arthur and Elizabeth Cooper. In 1891 the family of three were living in Stanbridge, Bedfordshire and then in 1901 at Bush Farm, Little Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Bertram now had a sister, Elsie M, aged eight. A niece, Lily Tompkins, was also living with them. Sometime after the 1911 census and before the war, the family moved to 16 Fishponds Road, Hitchin. Bertram was making his own way in the world and working as a railway porter while lodging with the Bent family in New Mill End, near Luton, Bedfordshire.
Thanks to the research of David Baines we know more; Bertram was a quiet man seeking little in the way of excitement and he kept pigeons as a hobby. He enlisted with the first ‘Derby’ Group – this was a scheme brought in by Lord Derby, which predated conscription. Men attested their willingness to serve, but would only be called up if needed. Bertram signed these papers on November 22nd 1915, when he was twenty-seven, working as a horse keeper and living in West Mill. He was subsequently mobilised to the 8th Battalion, Northampton Regiment on June 5th 1916.
His address is his connection to Pirton; West Mill lies near Ickleford and is adjacent to Oughtonhead Common and the River Oughton, which at the time lay within the Pirton parish boundary. In fact this connection is virtually identical to that of Frank Cannon, the first man listed on the Pirton Village Memorial.
As part of the Northampton Regiment, Bertram left for France on the September 1st 1916 and remained in the base depot until September 29th when he was posted to the 2nd Battalion before joining the 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment on October 14th 1916 and then served in “B” Company. Bertram was reported missing after an action at Beaumont Hamel in the Somme sector. Company Serjeant Major Bessant wrote that Bert was wounded and had set off for a dressing station, but he did not arrive. He is recorded as killed in action on January 17th 1917.
He is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, which is built on the skyline above the village of the same name and which dominates the surrounding countryside. It lies off the main Bapaume to Albert road and commemorates 72,092 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died on the Somme and who have no known grave. As you approach the memorial, its scale and meaning threaten to become overwhelming. Bertram’s name appears on pier 14, panel 14B and also on the Hitchin Town War Memorial.
The Parish Magazine of June 1917 acknowledges Bertram’s connection to Pirton, listing him under the heading ‘Pirton Men in His Majesty’s Service’ and having been called up since March 2nd 1916 and serving in the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment (this should be York and Lancaster). It also lists him as missing when in fact he had been killed.
Additional Information
Text from the book: The Pride of Pirton
Acknowledgments
The Pride of Pirton book – www.pirton.org.uk/prideofpirton Chris Ryan / Tony French / Jonty Wild
