Son of Sir Lionel Bertram, and nephew and presumably the heir of his uncle George, Sr. Lifelong friend of Arthur Wilkinson, and for some years engaged to marry Caroline Waddington. After a series of misunderstandings they agreed to part, but married after the death of Caroline’s husband Sir Henry Harcourt.

"He was not a handsome boy, nor did he become a handsome man. His face was too solid, his cheeks too square, and his forehead too heavy; but his eyes, though small, were bright, and his mouth was wonderfully marked by intelligence.... He wore no beard, not even the slightest apology for a whisker, and this perhaps added to the apparent heaviness of his face; but ... no face bore on it more: legible marks of an acute mind" - The Bertrams