Born on 27th December, 1922 in a little house in Church Street that once stood in what is the old Church Rooms courtyard, Bert has had a long and well-lived life in this, his village.

Bert’s father was one of the village’s bakers and Bert would sometimes join him on the family’s horse and cart to deliver bread throughout Barrow. At the age of 14, with the family now living in Warner Street, Bert left school and went to work at Drivers in Sileby Road (now Charnwood Mill). When the war came, he joined the Navy and saw service on landing craft throughout the Mediterranean. He returned to Barrow in 1946 and picked up his life again with his many friends. On Sundays the young people would “go down Briggs” and congregate at the Boathouse, the only place open on a Sunday in those days. It was there (when he and some mates were pushing cars out of the floods) that Bert first noticed Iris Marlow, living at that time at 25 Sileby Road (now number 31) in a semi-detached cottage near the bridge over Fishpool Brook. Iris caught his eye again at a Town Hall dance and they went home together in his friend’s car. In 1950, they married and lived together on Sileby Road before moving into one of the houses his brother, Jack Perkins, built in Breachfield Road.

During the 1960s he was Secretary of Barrow Old Boys’ Football Club. Every Saturday he spent either marking out the pitch or running the line (if no-one else could be found!). Endless hours were spent getting a team up for the next Saturday and many evenings were spent with Iris and Bert working together “doing the minutes” of the committee meetings. Bert is still an avid supporter of the football club and has a network of friends who keep him in touch with the club’s fortunes. Until the pandemic he could also be found at Barrow Cricket Club enjoying both the game and the cricket tea!

In later years, both Bert and Iris were enthusiastic members of the Bishop Beveridge Club. Bert was often asked to lay a wreath on behalf of the club on Remembrance Sunday. Bert has never missed Remembrance Sunday which offers him the opportunity to quietly remember his fallen comrades.

This year Bert will be 100 years old. He is the last surviving WW2 veteran who went to serve his country from this village. We wish him well and congratulations on this, his special birthday.

Jean Rawlings (one of Bert's daughters

We wish him well and congratulations on this, his special, birthday.

Jean Rawlings (one of Bert’s daughters)