Denison, Bertram
On Sept. 2, 1914, the Star carried on its front page the solemn news that Toronto had lost its first soldier of the new war.
Technically, Lt. Bertram Noel Denison didn’t live in Toronto. More to the point, he was not yet dead.
Toronto’s police magistrate, George T. Denison, told the Star that he had received a cable saying his nephew Bertram was killed in action in Belgium. Bertram’s father, Admiral John Denison, was born in Toronto but left as a young man to join the British Royal Navy. Bertram, 30, was born and raised in England, and made his home there with his wife and young daughter, but he still had strong ties to Canada: he spent a few years on the staff of the Canadian Forces in Niagara; he married a Toronto girl, Gladys May Nordheimer; and he made regular visits to Toronto to visit family.
George Denison was admittedly sketchy on the details of his nephew’s death but said the news came in a message from his brother John on the morning of Sept. 2: “Bertram killed in action.”
It was later learned that Denison was wounded at La Cateau in the British army’s infamous late-August retreat from Mons. The Germans captured him and took him to a hospital, where he died of his wounds on Sept. 15.
Evidently, the murky circumstances surrounding his death made it easy for rumours to spread. The Denisons again went to the Star on Oct. 19 to say Bertram was definitely dead, contrary to a rumour that the Germans were holding him prisoner.
What was clear was that Bertram Denison was seen as an exemplary soldier. He followed his father into the navy at age 13 and served as a midshipman in the Boer War before transferring to the army and joining the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The day before England declared war, he was given a staff appointment in the War Office, but instead chose to go into battle with his regiment.
One colonel wrote: “Of the hundreds of gallant officers who have died in this cruel war, I am sure that none could have gone further than Bertram.”
“Of the hundreds of gallant officers who have died in this cruel war, I am sure none could have gone further than Bertram.”
A COLONEL