Bertram Gilbert Hill, born on 23rd March 1897, was admitted to King Edward’s School in January 1908. Bertram was the eldest son of Bertram, an electroplate manufacturer, and Sarah, and the family, including Bertram’s two younger siblings, lived on Devonshire Road, Handsworth.
At School, Bertram was a strong swimmer. He swam for the School team and was awarded his full colours, winning the annual School sports race in 1912. He was also a Lance Corporal in the School Officer Training Corps, and an able pupil academically, performing particularly well in French and science. After School, Bertram worked for the Birmingham Carriage and Wagon Company until the formation of the first Birmingham Pals Battalion.
In October 1914, Bertram enlisted as a Private Soldier in the 1st Birmingham Pals Battalion (14th Royal Warwickshire Regiment), aged seventeen. He soon gained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and was sent to France in July 1915, attached to a machine-gun company. He was wounded and went missing, presumed killed, on the first day of the Battle of Loos, on 25th September 1915. He is buried in Brown’s Road Military Cemetery, Festubert. His mother requested that the inscription on his headstone should read: “He is the silence following great words of peace.”