We do not have any medals, as he was not awarded any special medals. He was not interested in obtaining any commission as he had a strong distaste for war and conventional soldiering.
SERVICE
July 1915 - 1918
REMEMBERED
Bert was the eldest son of Joseph and Harriet Horton from Stafford Rd, Handsworth, Birmingham. The family attended Asbury Methodist Chapel and had a strong non – conformist faith.
Bert volunteered after graduating from Birmingham University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Aged 19 years he signed up with the Royal Army Medical Corps and, following training over several months in places like Castle Bromwich, Wedgenock in the Warwickshire countryside, and near Frankley Waterworks, in January 1916 he was sent to France.
Travelling around northern France he went on to endure the horrors of the Somme, rescuing injured soldiers from the mud-soaked trenches, in what was the bloodiest period in the history of the British Army. Struggling often without water, food or dressings, death was never far away.
In January 1917 he found himself near the Belgian border, in Ypres salient, following the infantry, and having many near misses.
By September, because Bert could speak some German, he had been chosen to help with a mission to Italy in what was the 48th South Midland division’s contribution to the Italian war effort, and at the end of the war he travelled on to Austria, to help rescue prisoners of war.
REGIMENT 
