THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE   Private Bertram Beech Pennsylvania State Police Troop "D" 1897-1925

Incident Details

Bertram Beech was born April 21, 1897, at Ridderminster, Worstershire County, England.

He served with the 6th U.S. Cavalry and the 3rd U.S. Field Artillery Medical Detachment from 1917 to 1919. He enlisted with the Constabulary from Philadelphia on May 1, 1924, and was assigned to Troop D, Butler.

On December 10, 1925, at 5:30 a.m., Beech was a passenger in a patrol car operated by Private John T. Edelman, when the vehicle struck a Bessemer and Lake Railroad train at the McCoystown Crossing, Mercer County, a dangerous unattended railroad crossing. Beech was killed instantly. Beech was buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia on December 14, 1925. Beech, 28, completed one year and eight months of Constabulary service.