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2502 5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
Bertie Martin was born in Sudbury in 1886 it is believed one of nine children of Herbert and Maria Martin. His father was a stoker at the local gas works and the family lived in Elliston’s Yard, Ballingdon.
At the age of 15 Bertie was employed as a brickyard labourer. He enlisted in Colchester and served with the 5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, the Territorial Battalion based in Sudbury.
The battalion embarked on the ‘Aquitania’ in Liverpool in July 1915, heading for Gallipoli in the eastern Mediterranean. The battalion landed at Suvla Bay in early August and saw action against the Turks, advancing through heavy enemy fire without any artillery support from their own side to gain 1,300 yards. The battalion suffered 186 killed or wounded and a further 160 sick, the majority suffering with dysentery. The battalion was garrisoned at Hill 60 and had to endure disease, swarms of flies, heat, water shortage and lack of transport. Bertie served alongside other Sudbury men including his Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel William Armes, CSM Wilfred Hunt, Albert Byham, Harry Farrant, Percy Hume and David Pettit, who all lost their lives in the Gallipoli Campaign.
Bertie was killed in action at Gallipoli on 21 August 1915. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.
He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal and is also remembered on Baptist Church Memorial in Church Street.
His younger brother Basil Martin lost his life in France in 1917 and is also remembered on the Sudbury War Memorial.
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