BX June 14, 1962

Bertie Neal

Bertie (Bert) Neal, 65 of 210 Nelson Street, died Wednesday at his home.  A native of Lincolnshire, England, he was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Harry Neal.  A resident of Brantford since 1907, he had been a gardener for 33 years with several families here. Mr. Neal was a veteran of the First World War, serving with the 54th Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery. He was a member of St. Jude’s Anglican Church.  Surviving is his wife, the former Maud Bessie Dimmick; two sons, John William and Douglas Allen, both of Brantford; one brother, Herbert and a sister Ivy of Branford.  Mr. Neal is at the Beckett Funeral Home until Saturday when funeral service will be held at 2 p.m.  Rev. R.A.E. Ruch of St. Jude’s Anglican Church will officiate.  Interment will be in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Additional information from family: Following the war, he lived his entire life in Brantford, married a woman who immigrated to Brantford after WWI, and they had two sons. We know that he was in the Hamilton Mountain Sanitarium on the 1921 census and didn’t marry until he was 39 years old. He worked as a gardener for many years for three of the Cockshutt families and several other prominent Brantford families. He was also the gardener and custodian for the Christian Science church which some of the Cockshutts attended. Bert Neal died June 13, 1962.