Bertram Joseph Mansfield

Story:
Bertram Joseph Mansfield was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, on 11 Jun 1877 the son of Thomas John Mansfield (a local Watchmaker and Jeweller) and Ellen Mansfield (nee Andrew).  He spent all his early life in Shaftesbury with some of his education at Shaftesbury Grammar School which he left in 1894.  By 1901 he had moved to Hampstead, London, where he was working as a Clerk. His father died in 1904. He married Maude Alice Jessie Murphy at St. John the Evangelist Church, Hammersmith, Middlesex, on 18 Apr 1910.  He had enlisted with the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) as a Territorial with the rank of Rifleman (Service No. 175).  When he was mobilized at the outset of war he joined the 18th Battalion (Service No. 200162) and served abroad from 5 Jan 1916 though it is not known in which area.  On his discharge, sometime after 2 Nov 1919, he was awarded the British War Medal only as well as a lifetime pension.  The 1921 Census shows him living at 'Aysgarth', Somerton Road, Cricklewood, Middlesex, working as a Railway Accounts Clerk with the Railway Clearing House. By the time of the 1939 Register he was living at 31 Cowslip Hill, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, described as a Retired Railway Clearing House Clerk.  He died in Letchworth on 25 Oct 1965.