About: Elsie Bertram

Elsie Bertram MBE (née Hacking; 6 June 1912 – 26 October 2003) was an English wholesale publishers' bookseller and philanthropist who co-founded the Bertrams books wholesaler in 1968. She became wholesale distributor for Pan Paperbacks in East Anglia in 1965 before going on to obtain a contract to accommodate a children's book list from Hamlyn three years later. Bertram setup Bertrams with her oldest son that same year and she was credited with significantly helping improve the distribution of books across the United Kingdom. She established the Norfolk Diabetes Appeal in 1987 and did a significant amount of fundraising for the appeal, funding a diabetic unit for West Norwich Hospital and a specialist eye clinic centre. The annual Elsie Bertram Memorial Lecture is named in her memory.