Service number: 42140 | Rank: Private | Regiment: Bedfordshire Regiment
Killed in action, September 21, 1918, in Flanders.
Buried at UNICORN CEMETERY, VEND’HUILE, Aisne, France.
Born and lived at Brandon, enlisted at Norwich.
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT BERT …
It seems Bert was born at the beginning of 1900. His parents were John Dyer, who dug up large flints for a living, and Annie, who pulled fur of rabbit skins at their home and sent them off to Mr Rought-Rought’s huge fur factory for processing. Bert had three older brothers, Frank, William and Percy, and an older sister, Alice. By the 1911 census Bert then had a younger brother, Edgar, and the family were living at 2 Foster Cottages, along Bury Road, Brandon.
During the war Bert went off to Norwich and enlisted to fight. He was killed in action in France as part of the Bedfordshire regiment. Interestingly his medal card reads, “Retd (1743 K.R. 1912)” which relates to the King’s Regulation of 1912, paragraph 1743. This paragraph meant that his Victory and British Medals for fighting in the war were returned to the army. An explanation for this would be the fact that an attempt had been made to deliver them to the address Bert had given as his next of kin but they were no longer there and had probably moved on and had not informed the military authorities. The medals would have been returned to Woolwich barracks and broken up and disposed of. The Commonwealth War Graves website only lists him as ‘B. Dyer’ and not even his first name is logged.