Bertram William Arthur Page 1895 to 1969

[kizmiaz]

Hello,

I am trying to help a friend find out anything about his grandfather, who seems fairly elusive, or at least seems to have avoided appearing in any other records.

His name was Bertram William Arthur Page, born 25 Dec 1895 in Plumstead to William Arthur Page and Lydia Mary Elkin.

I have his census records and 1939 register details, and his marriage to Florence Ellen Williams in 1922, and his death in Brighton in 1969, but I'm trying to get a better idea of who he was.

His grandson believes he may have played piano on cruise ships at some stage, but I don't know where to look to prove this. I've looked for newspaper information for Bertram under that name and also Bert, and there is lots of info about a Bert Page, comedy pianist, but this would appear to be someone from Nottingham, not London.

Does anyone have any connections to Bertram and/or anything which would give more flesh to the bare bones of info I currently have?

Many thanks.

[ShaunJ]

FindMyPast has a merchant navy CR1 for him from 1926. Rating "Pianist".  It's annotated "Rawalpindi".

[ShaunJ]

There's also a WW1 medal record for someone of that name. Gunner, 154260, Royal Field Artillery.

[kizmiaz]

ShaunJ, thank you so much for the information. These records have given me other targets to aim at and I have now found a record for his service on the SS China based on these results.

All these snippets of info helps to unblur the picture of Bertrams life and are much appreciated.

Many thanks

[cath151]

Also a merchant navy record for Bert William Page (same no 1139402)
Assistant Steward and Pianist
List of ships and dates below . Try https://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsnum  for ships names.Also newspapers for possible movements of the ships.

Cathy

[Daisypetal]

Hi,

This snippet shows he was wounded in 1917 but I can't find anything else about it,

Regards,
Daisy

[kizmiaz]

Cathy, thank you so much for pointing me towards that site. Extremely useful and informative, I now have a good list of his ships.

Thanks Daisy, his service records look to be one of the unlucky ones to have been lost, so it will probably never be easy to find what this injury was, or where it occurred

Many thanks

[ShaunJ]

He re-enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1919, discharged in 1921

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FROYALART%2F1032001-1033000%2F00028&parentid=GBM%2FROYALART%2F65671

If this is your tree on Ancestry, you already have that:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/183276520/person/402385368461/facts

[Ladyhawk]

Don't know if this is the same person

Bertram Page age 32 arrived New York aboard the Tuscania 1 Oct 1928 from London