Bertie Claude Gannicott was born in Stalbridge, Dorset, in the summer of 1893. One of twelve children, he was the son of railway signalman Edward Gannicott and his wife, Emily. The family moved to Highbridge, Somerset, when Bertie was a babe-in-arms, and so this was the town he was to know as home for his whole life.

When Bertie completed his schooling, he found work as a cellerman in a local brewery. When war broke out in 1914, he turned 21 years of age. He seemed keen to serve his King and Country and, while service records for him no longer exist, it is clear that he had enlisted in the army by the spring of 1918.

Private Gannicott joined the Royal Army Service Corps and was attached to the 61st Remount Squadron. It’s not possible to confirm whether he saw action overseas, although his unit would have been responsible for supplying the army with horses and mules for the war effort.

Bertie was based in Berkshire towards the end of the war. He fell ill in the autumn of 1918, contracting pneumonia. Admitted to the No. 5 War Hospital in Reading, this was a condition to which he would succumb. He passed away on 19th November, at the age of 25 years old.

Bertie Claude Gannicott was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in Highbridge Cemetery.

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