Died
8 February 1940 Aged 45 years
Born
1894?
Sources
Barrow News
Cumbria BMD
Ancestry
Place
Walks
Themes
Chief Petty Officer Burt Todd
CWGC has:
Chief Petty Officer Burt Todd (Telegraphist) H.M.S. President II.
Service No: P/J 8657
Date of Death: 08/02/1940
Age: 45
Cemetery: WALNEY ISLAND (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
Additional Information: Son of Joseph and Lydia Todd; husband of Winnifred May Todd.
The picture on the left was taken in 1986, and is copied from Ancestry.UK. Was there a drought?
The death notice in the North Western Daily Mail of 10 February 1942 implies that he died of illness in Barrow. His wife’s name is spelt in the conventional way.
HMS President was not a ship, but a shore establishment, officially an ‘accounting base’. Men were allocated to HMS President (I, II, III, IV, V or VI) when they were between ships, presumably to ensure that they still got paid. I could be wrong about this.
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1940-02FEB.htm records C.P.O. Bert Todd, died (presumably of illness).
It is difficult to know whether the B is Burt (CWGC and death notice) or Bert (naval-history.net). Cumbria BMD has an Albert Todd born in 1894 in the Dalton Registration District, which may be him.
Cumbria BMD does not record a B. Todd marrying a Winifred May in the locality.
This grave shows the difficulty of finding out even fairly recent information. The Census is confidential for 100 yrs, so the last published information is from 1911. However, there is a family tree on Ancestry for Burt Todd, telling us that he was born in Chelsea, London on 12 July 1894; married Dora Michelmore in St. Matthew, West Kensington on 5 April, 1920. He had at least two children, Desmond (1921-1983) & Joseph (1933 -2013), and a second wife, Winifred (married in Malta, 14 Jan 1932 – died Portsmouth, 1946). Since this has been compiled by a family member it is likely to be accurate, and my speculations about spelling and being born in Dalton are likely to be irrelevant.
