Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Bertram was born on 13th August 1885 fifteen months after his sister Ethel. Their parents were Northumberland couple John, a goods guard, and his wife Mary Anne Elliott; they had a third child Lucy in 1894. As a youngster Bertram spent his whole life in and around the Teams and Bensham areas of Gateshead, working when he was aged 15 as an office boy for an insurance company, and then as a driller at the ironworks. He also spent five years in the Royal Electrical Engineers (Tyne Division).

On 6th April 1912 Bertram arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia having sailed on the SS Virginian from Liverpool and heading for Winnipeg, Manitoba. He found work as a machinist and on 25th February 1915 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Winnipeg, becoming Private 72130 of the 27th Battalion. Three months later he sailed with the Battalion aboard SS Carpathia from Quebec City to Devonport, and then onward to Dibgate Camp, near Folkestone in Kent. In September the Battalion proceeded aboard SS Margeurite from Folkestone to Boulogne as part of the 6th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Canadian Division. Promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1916 he was sent on an Armourer’s Course with the 6th Brigade and by September was employed as such earning a Corporal’s pay.

Bertram was one of 2559 men killed on 26th September 1916 at Courcelette, and his body was never found.

Bertram Whitfield is remembered in Bensham on B134.02 and in Gateshead on G39.004 page 95

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Corporal Whitfield