Bertie was born on 8 October 1918 in Bethnal Green, London to Lithuania born Hyman, a retail tobacconist, and Jenny nee Kosminsky and he had a brother Edwin and a sister Irene. Hyman and Jenny married in the New Road Synagogue on 6 Sep 1914 and then Hyman served in WW1 in the 9th Russian Labour Corps before returning to his business as a tobacconist.

Bertie married Bertha Wolff in Bethnal Green, London on 22 August 1940 before he enlisted into the Army in 1941. Bertie died from his wounds in Italy and is buried at Assisi War Cemetery. His headstone has a Cross by default when a letter from the CWGC went unanswered by his family requesting information for his headstone. Information has been submitted to the CWGC and they have responded with: ‘Our case review found that there was clear evidence that the casualty identified as Jewish at the time of their death and Commission records show that the casualty’s next of kin did not respond to express a preference for the content of the headstone. It has therefore been agreed that a Star of David should now be added to the headstone for Fusilier Shapiro’.