28 June 2017

GREAT WAR CENTENARY: Bertie Mendham

Bertie John Mendham, to give him his full Sunday name, was born on 22 May 1884 in East Wretham, Norfolk, seventh of the nine children of Thomas & Mary (nee Freeman).  He was the older brother of Ernest Tom Mendham, who I remembered three weeks ago.

Christened on 5 July 1884 in East Wretham, Bertie was my third cousin four times removed. and he moved with the family to Streatham, London, by 1901.  By the age of 16 he was a porter and the 1911 census shows him working as a printer and living in Upper Tooting.  Towards the end of that year he married Daisy and they begat two children - Daisy, and Albert who was to die in the next war.

He enlisted in the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment and died on 28 June 1917.  With no known grave he is commemorated, along with his brother, on the Menin Gate memorial.

We will remember them.

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