PART ONE
Charles Albert Weaver, but always known as Bert, was born on 26th August 1922, in the wonderfully named cottage ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’, in the village of Hopesay near Craven Arms and was the sixth child of nine children. When he was only six weeks old, Bert suffered a severe bout of whooping cough and measles and wasn’t expected to live, but by a miracle he overcame the illness and slowly recovered.
When he was two years old his family moved to the rural location of Burley, about five miles north of Ludlow in Shropshire, where his father was a shepherd.
He left school when he was 13 and worked as a gardener for the vicar at Culmington and also rang the bells in the village church. Bert then went into agricultural work, he was a Waggoner, working with horse and carts moving agricultural produce such as manure and hay and also ploughed with horses.
In December 1939, he went to work as a tractor driver for A E Jones of Ludlow, who was an agricultural contractor and livestock haulier and had a fleet of lorries including makes such as Commer, Reo, Diamond T and Leyland. Bert carried-out ploughing for Jones, who had an International and two new Standard Fordsons at the beginning of the War. In late 1941, when aged 18, he
