502 Battery, 79 Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery
Died on Wednesday, 22nd September 1943 aged 32
Personal Information:
Bertie Charles was born in 1Q/1912 in Hartismere Suffolk, the third son of Thomas Walter Tacchi (1883-1943) and Louisa Maud Payne (1882-1966), who were married in 3Q/1908 also in Hartismere. Louisa was the daughter of Henry Harry Payne and Betsy Rattle from Woodbridge. Bertie had three brothers; Thomas, Leonard & George, and by 1911 the family had moved to Clerkenwell.
In the First World War his father Thomas was a Private in the Oxford Hussars.
In the course of his military duties on 22 September 1943, Bertie was riding a motorcycle when he was thrown off of it sustaining serious chest injuries. He was found dead on arrival at the Royal Berkshire Hospital Reading and buried in the Streatham Park Cemetery in Streatham. An inquest was held two days later.
Cemetery:
Grave 44202, Square 27A, Streatham Park Cemetery, Streatham.
Streatham Park Cemetery is in Rowan Road, Streatham Vale. The cemetery contains Commonwealth war graves of both World Wars, and also a Screen Wall Memorial which commemorates service casualties of these wars buried in this cemetery in graves which could not be marked by headstones. A wing has been added to this memorial on which are carved the names of those who died during the Second World War who were accorded the last rite of cremation at the South London Crematorium, which is situated within the cemetery.