Bertie Hugh Tyler from Preston was awarded the Military Medal for bravery for going out under shell fire on several occasions to bring in wounded men. He and his brother Frank Raymond both died in the First World War. Two other brothers fought and survived. Bertie was born at Preson on 21 March 1887, the son of Charles and Louisa Tyler. Charles was from Manton, Louisa from Lyddington and they set up home in the 1860s in Preston and stayed there to bring up their 13 children. Bertie worked as a carpenter in Oakham and was a well known local cricketer. He enlisted on 16 November 1915 in Doncaster although we do not know how he came to be there. Bertie went out to the Western Front in August 1916, and served with the 11th Field Company Royal Engineers around Ypres. The award of his Military Medal appeared in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 16 February 1917. Bertie died from wounds received during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) on 24 September 1917, at an Australian Field Ambulance Station. At the time some of his Company were in dugouts at Shrapnel Corner, just outside Ypres, while others were at Dickebusch a short distance away. The Company war diary does not mention any casualties sustained on either 23 or 24 September, so it is possible Bertie might have been injured earlier. He is buried at Bedford House Cemetery, Zillebeke, Enclosure No 2, grave I.D.27, and remembered on Preston's war memorial.

To find Bertie's grave, follow the path into the main part of the cemetery. Enclosure No 2 is on the left and his is one of the original graves laid out in a haphazard fashion. Most of the cemetery was created after the war with few original burials.