Claude Robert Harry Bartram was born on the 27 June 1893 the son of John Abraham Bartram (1856-1925) and his second wife Emily Catherine Bartram née Hunger (b.1857). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1893 in the Pancras registration district, London
When he was baptised, together with his elder half-sister, Maud Elizabeth Bartram (b.1881), at St Thomas’s Parish Church, Camden on the 5th September 1894, the baptismal register shows the family were living at 66 Wrotham Road, Camden Town and that their father was a postman.
The 1901 census shows him living at 29 St Paul’s Road, St Pancras, London with his parents, three half-siblings: Maud, John Ferdinand Bartram (1882-1920) and Olive Helena Bartram (b.1883). In the 1911 census he is shown as a stationer's assistant living at 105 College Place, Camden Town, with his father who was listed as a G.P.O. postman.
He joined the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) in April 1916 and his service number was 5792. He entered France on 19 July 1916. His service number was changed to 372879 and he was killed in action, aged 23 years, on the 7 October 1916. He was buried near where he fell but after the war ended his body was exhumed and reburied in Plot 5, Row B, Grave 6 at the Warlencourt British Cemetery, Rte nationale D929, 62450 Warlencourt-Eaucourt, France.
On 7 December 1917 his army effects totalling £2-1s-10d were sent to his mother at 105, College Place, Camden Town and she was also sent his £3-0s-0d war gratuity on 10 November 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as Bartram, C. R. H. on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant London, EC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
