This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
250038L/Cpl. George Bertram Ecclestone
British Army 5th Battalion Queen's Own Royal West Kent
from:Stansted, Essex
(d.7th September 1942)
George Bertram Ecclestone was born in Newmarket in 1918 and grew up in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. He was known to the family as Bertram. After leaving school in 1937 he joined Barclays Bank in London. Just prior to the war he joined the Territorials and at the outbreak of war enlisted in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 5th Battalion.In February 1940 he went to serve with the British Expeditionary Force in France, his battalion being involved in several battles including the Battle of Nieppe Forest. Bertram was evacuated from Dunkerque on one of the last boats to England. His sister recalls: 'He was uninjured. At home he slept solidly for days from complete exhaustion.'
In May 1942 Bertram's regiment set sail for the Middle East, arriving at Suez in July. Here they spent a few weeks training in desert warfare and on 14th August 1942 the order came to join the Eighth Army under Montgomery immediately. The 5th Battalion Royal West Kents soon went into battle at Alam Halfa on 3rd September 1942. Here they met with very strong resistance and suffered heavy casualties. His sister recalls: 'He was missing for several days, and was found in a German prisoner of war camp. His right knee had been shot away and he could not survive.' Bertram died of his wounds on 7th September 1942. He is buried in a war grave at El Alamein
The November/December 1942 Barclays Bank staff magazine pays the following tribute: 'with his attractive personality he had become popular with his colleagues. He was a keen swimmer, a member of the swimming section of the Bank's sports club and a water polo player of promise. His death is deeply regretted by all who knew him.'
Bertram's grave at El Alamein
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?
If so please let us know.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.
The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.