Bertie Charge was born at Hobblett’s Orchard on High Street Green to the west of Hemel Hempstead in January 1892 and baptised in St. Paul’s Church on Sunday, 6th March in the same year. He was the youngest son born to David Charge and Lydia Hitchcock who had ten children, five of whom died. The surviving children were: William, Bertha, Thomas, Bertie and Winifred May. The children who died were all girls: Alice, Elizabeth, Eliza, Katie and Fanny and they had all passed away before 1901. Bertie’s brother Thomas was a regular soldier and served in the Great War as a Driver in the Royal Horse Artillery and survived the conflict.

Bertie’s father David was a ‘Brickmaker’ and was employed in the brickworks behind Maylands Wood just a short walk from the family home. When Bertie left school in 1905 he went to work for John Dickinson & Co. Limited as a ‘Bookbinder’ at Apsley Mills and he remained there until he joined the Colours.

On the declaration of war Bertie attested at Hemel Hempstead in the first week of September 1914 and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment. He underwent basic training at Bedford before being posted to the 2nd Battalion and sent to France, disembarking at Le Havre on the 17th March 1915.

Bertie was part of a draft of 101 men sent to reinforce the Battalion which had suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle a short time before. He arrived on the 20th March in the esteemed company of the new C.O. Major John Henry MacKenzie V.C. D.C.M., who fell just two months later at the head of his men on the 17th May 1915 in the Battle of Festubert.

About a fortnight after arriving in France, Bertie unexpectedly met his brother Thomas, whom he had not seen for seven years on account of Thomas serving overseas as a regular soldier. The happy coincidence was reported in the Hemel Gazette under ‘Local War Items’, a regular local interest feature in the paper in the early years of the War.

Not long after this meeting, Bertie was one of 276 men wounded in the Battle of Festubert and his condition was serious enough to take him down the line and back to England to recuperate. He remained in hospital in England and at home in Hemel Hempstead until August 1916 when he was sent back to France.

Bertie was an active member of St Paul’s Church in Hemel Hempstead and, as well as having been a chorister, he was a member of the Church of England Men’s Society (CEMS), This Society had been founded 1899 by Archbishop Frederick Temple with the objective of bringing men together to socialise in a Christian environment. Many young men like Bertie were members of the CEMS which was also intended to be educational, social and representative of the Church of England. In the early years of the 20th Century the Society's rapid expansion led to the formation of federations and diocesan unions all across the UK.

On his return to France, Bertie wrote to his family to recount an incident which brought him closer to home and which was reported in the Hemel Gazette. He described how he came across a ‘recreation hut’ two or three miles behind the line which bore the name “St. Albans”. 

 

On further investigation, Bertie discovered writing materials in part of the hut along with periodicals and papers from Hertfordshire. He noticed that the contributors who had made it possible to erect the hut were the various branches of the CEMS in the St. Albans diocese. The presence of the hut and the material available clearly provided some comfort to the men at the front and Bertie subsequently made several further visits.

This report appeared in the Gazette less than two weeks before Bertie died after he was wounded during or just after the Battle of Transloy. There is some confusion regarding the date of his death with the 18th, 19th and 20th October all given as his final day. However, what is clear is that the action at Transloy was costly in the extreme for the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment and the War Diaries record the casualties as follows: "13th October 1916 - Officers = 10 Killed 5 Died of Wounds 1 Wounded 1 Wounded at Duty 3 Other Ranks = 242 Killed 49 Missing 49 Wounded & Missing 2 Wounded 125 Shell Shock 5 Wounded at Duty."

It is highly likely that Bertie received his wounds during the battle and probably evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station and possibly to a base hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Bertie’s ‘Register of Effects’ records his date of death as Wednesday, 18th October 1916.

His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette the following month as were details of a memorial service at St Paul’s Church on Sunday, 5th November 1916, in which he was commemorated along with four other members of the congregation who had fallen. 

On the first anniversary of his death Bertie’s family inserted a touching ‘In Memoriam’ notice in the Gazette.

He was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co Limited War Memorial in Apsley and on a plaque which was erected in the old St Paul’s Church in Hemel Hempstead.

Bertie is Remembered with Honour in Bulls Road Cemetery, Flers, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave III. D. 30. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his parents, reads: “IT WAS HARD TO PART WITH ONE WE ALL LOVED SO DEAR”.

He was 24 years old when he died.

Bertie was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.