Bertram Clayton Brealey
Today (3.12.2013) at Hartshill Cemetery, Staffordshire a lady spoke to me while visiting a grave.
During the conversation we touched on a military subject and she said that her late husband had been in the army and was at at the liberation of Belsen Camp, in fact he was the first tank to arrive at the camp. She went on to say when he was at the camp the women came forward asking for milk for their babies and he could see that many of the babies they carried were dead, a memory he never lost.
The grave she was visiting was her late husband’s and she gave me permission to photograph it and to upload it onto this site. She also gave me the following information – he was (rank not remembered) No 114726 Bertram Clayton Brealey of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry.
On April 15th 1945, 249 (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) battery of the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment Royal Artillery liberated the camp at 2.30pm. Lt Colonel Dick Taylor ordered subordinates to enter the camp with a loud speaker van.
Source: 28th61st (From Staffordshire) Military Images.net
Also ref to Berkeley on Wikipedia (same image and text)
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Belsen Online Archive
This archive has been established after my own relative, Reg Price, took part in the liberation and subsequent humanitarian effort of Bergen Belsen in April 1945. Reg produced this famous sign at Belsen. As part of the 113th DLI, Reg and his comrades were at Belsen for 5 weeks and left when the last hut was empty and ceremonially burnt down. This archive compiles all available resources to build a lasting tribute to all the men and women who helped - any unit, any nationality. If you have a relative, or any info, on the relief effort at Belsen, we’d love you to please get in touch. Email us: liberator@belsen.co.uk – Thank you Nick Price Creatives • Facebook • Twitter •
