80 years ago, World War Two wasn’t won. Nazi Germany occupied most of Western Europe, and was in full occupation of the French coast, just across the English Channel. British forces had been forced into an ignominious retreat from Dunkirk in N France in 1940. The struggle for aerial superiority had seen British and German cities and civilians subjected to the terror of bombing, with around 40,000 British people killed in the seven months of the ‘Blitz’. The UK had been on a war footing for five years, coping with shortages, rationing, bereavement, separation of children and parents, hard and heavy work both voluntary and paid, and the population was weary. It must have been hard to see how the country would ever push back into the European mainland, or indeed how long we could defend our own country from invasion.
However, the involvement of our most powerful ally, the United States, from the end of 1941, had seen a steady build-up of capacity in the UK, ready for an attack across the channel to turn the tide of the war. Dorset saw troops build up in several areas – with both UK and US troops stationed around Weymouth, in Dorchester and at sites around Poole. Streets began to fill with armoured vehicles, ships were massing in Weymouth Bay, intense training continued along the Fleet. Although the date of D-Day was a closely guarded secret, people must have felt the imminence of the action with all the hope and dread that attempt inspired.
Records at DHC reflect that period in a multiplicity of ways, through recordings of US troops retelling their experiences when visiting Dorset 30 years ago, to ration cards, civil defence records, the minutes of public bodies, church sermons and postcards home. You can also use our records, in combination with Ancestry (free to access at DHC at anytime we’re open, without appointment) to find out about some of the individuals involved.
Eight Dorchester men ranging in age from 18-36 died on, or directly because of, D-Day. We asked our wonderful volunteer researcher, Valerie, to investigate each of these, so that we can bring you a brief portrait of each of them. We’d love to hear from any surviving relatives of the men we are honouring by telling their story.
Bertram Charles Nother
At 36, Bertram was the eldest of the Dorchester D-Day casualties. He was a Sapper with the Royal Engineers and died on 10th July 1944.
Bertram was born on 21st March, 1908 to Samuel and Anne Nother of Dorchester, who had married in May 1905 in Fordington. They already had a little boy, Henry George, born in 1906. The family lived at 25, Glyde Path Rd. Sadly, Betram’s Mother died and in 1911, the family had a housekeeper, Harriet Stroud.
Harriet and Betram’s Father Samuel married at Holy Trinity in the Summer of 1913, and Bertram and Henry were soon blessed with four half-sisters, Winnie, Daisey, Ivy and Lily as well as Harriet’s two existing children. The family of 10 moved to 52, Colliton Street. At the 1921 census, aged thirteen, Bertram was at school, probably the boys only, Church of England Elementary School in his own street.
On 17th December 1933 Bertram got married to Phyllis Groves, and in 1935 they had a daughter, Hazel.
The 1939 Register shows Bertram as a ‘Qualified loco boilermaker / S R Engine Sheet labourer’. Dorchester was a busy station, but Bertram may have also worked at nearby engineering sheds, for example in Weymouth.
Bertram enlisted in November 1941, so by D-Day he had served for two and a half year and was an experienced soldier. His service record tells us that he died in a ‘battle accident’ when he suffered a fractured skull. He was thrown onto his head twice, in the back of a lorry which was struggling with the rough terrain.
Bertram and Phyllis’ second child, George, was born in 1944. Bertram is commemorated at the Bayeux War Cemetery in France.
