Bertie Rickwood was born in Kensington in London on 20 March 1920, the eldest son of the four children (three sons and a daughter) of Albert James Rickwood (a builder’s labourer) and his wife, Dorothy Mary Elizabeth Rickwood (née Harvey). For the 1921 Census, Bertie and his parents were at home at 11, Kilvarock Street, Queens Park, London.

He joined the Royal Navy on a Short Service Engagement. A volunteer for ‘Special Service’ he trained as a Charioteer. In his training as a Chariot No. 2 Crewman he was teamed up with Lieutenant Guy Stretton-Smith, RNVR. During a training attack on the battleship HMS HOWE their compass failed but they managed to reach the target by following the coastline. However, they encountered a patch of fresh water and ended up on the bottom at some seventy feet depth. The training attack was abandoned and they returned safely to the surface and to the Depot Ship.

Bertie Rickwood was then allocated to a team of charioteers formed for an operation to attack Italian shipping at the port of La Maddelena. The team was embarked in HMS P311 for the operation with three chariots – Nos. X, XVIII & one other. P311 had completed the passage through the Sicilian Channel – reported at 0130 on 31 December 1942 – but no further reports were received from the submarine and P311 was presumed lost with all hands in a minefield near La Maddelena on or about 2 January 1943. Also lost were the three chariots, the three chariot crews and the team of four dressers – ten personnel in all. The date of the loss of P311, her crew and her chariot passengers was assumed to have been 8 January 1943 which is the date that the submarine was due to arrive back at Malta.

He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 73 Column 3 and on the 12th Submarine Flotilla memorials at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute and at Kylesku.. His Next of Kin was listed as his parents in Paddington, London.