1/2 (North Midland) Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
Herbert (Bert) Jotcham was born on 28 August 1888, at Wotton-under-Edge, one of eight children. He left school at 14 and was apprenticed to a gentlemen’s outfitters in the town, where he worked for five years. He also worked in various other towns before ending up at Herrington’s General Department Store in Leicester.
He enlisted in Leicester on 8 September 1914. He suffered from poor eyesight and had worn spectacles from an early age. His role in the military was therefore limited and he was posted to a Territorial unit of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was assigned the number 2407.
He went to France with his unit, which was part of 46 (North Midland) Division, on 27 February 1915 and remained there up until his death, although in late 1915 the Division was sent to Egypt only to be ordered back to France days after arrival. Little is known of Private Jotcham’s service career but 46 Division was in action at Hooge and at the Hohenzollern Redoubt in 1915 and at Gommecourt on the 1 July 1916. In early 1917 it was involved in actions surrounding the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. With the renumbering of the Territorial Force units in 1917, Private Jotcham acquired the number 419227.
The circumstances of his death are well documented. He was on duty in No 33 Casualty Clearing Station near Bethune on the morning of 21 October 1917, when a German aircraft dropped a bomb which landed a few yards away from the hut where Bert Jotcham was attending his patients. A small piece of shrapnel penetrated the wooden wall and embedded itself in his left side. He underwent an operation to try to save his life but to no avail and he died at 6pm. He was aged 29 and unmarried.
He was buried in the nearby Fouquieres Churchyard Extension cemetery. His two younger brothers also died in the Great War, in March and September 1918, respectively. All are commemorated on the War Memorial at Wotton-under-Edge.
Fouquieres Churchyard Extension Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais