Bertram Welby Hart was accidentally killed on this day in 1915
Born in Haulbowline, Queenstown, Co. Cork on 23 Jan 1893, Bertram was the third son of James Hart (Superintending Pharmacist at Plymouth Hospital) and Emily.
He was educated at Collegiate School, Malta and Devonport High School. He was studying to become a dentist when he volunteered at the outbreak of War. He obtained a commission in the Royal Naval Air Service 7 September 1914 and was assigned to HMS Pembroke.
On 24 January 1915 he was accidentally shot by a sentry whilst being driven, along with another officer, along the sea front at Torquay.
The car was driven by a civilian, Harold Murton (some accounts give his name as Marton) with Flight Sub-Lt Bertram Hart (RNAS) and Lieutenant Arthur Ernest Simpson (aged 42) of the Army Service Corps as passengers. Bertram had, earlier in the day, suggested a 'run' in the car, which belonged to Lieut. Thompson, R.N. According to reports:
"They came to Torquay and had tea at the Grand about 5.30. They went to the Torbay Hospital in the car to see a friend, who had come in for the afternoon. By this time it was nearly seven o'clock, and they started back for Plymouth. Witness asked a Policeman on the front as to the lighting arrangements and he replied that no headlights were allowed on the Torbay-road, and they proceeded with only side and tail lamps. On reaching Paignton witness turned on the head-lights and found they were burning dimly, as the accumulators had run down. They decided to return to Torquay for new ones. They proceeded slowly back to Torquay on account of the trams running without lights."
On reaching Belgrave Road they were stopped by two sentries (Donald Pullman and George Harris) and an altercation broke out.
Reports of the incident can be found in a number of newspapers, but it would seem that after stopping the car, a crowd formed as the argument between the sentries and the occupants of the car developed. Pullman and Harris were under orders to look for a particular car and detain its occupants. When they spotted the car with the three occupants (Murton, Hart and Simpson) they believed they had apprehended the car they were asked to look out for. It also had a cardboard number plate which seemed to arouse further suspicion.
Reading between the lines of the newspaper reports it seems Simpson and Hart took a dim view of being detained and did not take kindly to being addressed in an off-hand manner and as 'you there' rather than a form of address that officers would normally expect.
Lt Hart demanded to know on what authority to the sentries could search the car with the sentries' sergeant being called for. It would appear that within the crowd were a number of soldiers and they probably enjoyed the scene of two officers being detained.
All of this would have led to a tense 'stand off' taking place, with the crowd probably 'egging on' the sentries. But with tragic results. A rifle, which had been levelled at the car, went off (suggestions of jostling of the sentries by the crowd has a ring of truth). Murton went on to say in the subsequent inquest how ...
"... looking round [Murton] saw Lt. Hart falling and smoke, he believed, coming from Pullman's rifle. When he got out of the car he found Lt. Hart dead and Lt. Simpson dying on the ground behind the car, he having been standing directly behind Lt. Hart talking to a witness and in a direct line with the course taken by the bullet."
The inquest into their deaths resulted in an 'Accidental Death' verdict.
Both Hart and Simpson are buried in Plymouth (Ford Park) Cemetery.
Flight Sub-Lt Bertram Welby Hart, Royal Naval Air Service