Sir Bertram Topham Hatt

**Sir Bertram Topham Hatt** (born 1921) is the elder child of Sir Percival Topham Hatt and Sharon Hilary Hatt and the former controller of the North Western Railway.

## Backstory

Bertram was born in 1921 and had a twin named Lowham. He would design four coffee pot engines named Glynn, Maurice, Leslie and Phyllis for the Tidmouth, Knapford and Elsbridge Light Railway and later became assistant to Mr. Alfred Dry. When Mr. Alfred Dry retired in 1978, he became the controller of the North Western Railway. He would continue in that role for many years before retiring and being succeeded by his son, Charles Topham Hatt.

## Family

### Percival and Sharon Hatt

Bertram was devastated when he learn his father, Percival had died. As a tribute to his late father, he named Percy after him. When Sharon moved back to Sodor, Bertram was delighted. After retiring from the railway, he moved next door to her. After Sharon Hatt lost the trust of the engines and Charles on the day she took charge, Bertram recounted his mistakes from Donald and Douglas' first days on Sodor. Bertram would also speak to Charles about giving her another chance. Unfortunately, Bertram was shocked to discover that Sharon had died in her sleep due to old age. A few days later, he would read a letter from Sharon to the engines and her family, where she apologised for her actions that day.

### Charles Topham Hatt

After Charles and the engines lost their trust in Sharon Hatt, Bertram would talk to Charles about it and ask him to give Sharon another chance. After Sharon passed away, both Bertram and Charles kept her passing quiet for a few days.

### Barbara Regaby

Barbara does not approve of anyone causing harm to her father's engines, particularly when Hockings murdered Stevie and when Arry and Bert attempted to scrap Donald.

### Annabelle Regaby

Annabelle has a close relationship with Bertram (who is her maternal grandfather). After seeing Annabelle stand up to her paternal grandfather, Albert Regaby, this gave Sir Bertram the courage to fire him from the railway board. Annabelle is excited whenever he goes on holiday with Bertram and his family.

## Relationship with the Engines

### Thomas

When Thomas first arrived on Sodor, he got in to a lot of trouble, which annoyed Bertram. However, after James derailed due to his wooden brake blocks and Thomas came to the rescue, Bertram was so impressed that he decided to reward Thomas with his very own branch line.

### Percy

When Bertram purchased Percy, he named him after his late father. Although Percy did get into trouble with him after spoiling his best trousers as well as the passenger's clothes, he still thinks well of Percy. After Sharon moved back to Sodor, Percy would learn the origin of his name and was touched.

### Toby

Bertram and his family met Toby whilst on holiday to East Anglia. After Thomas got in trouble with the police, Bertram bought Toby to help out and was only too happy to keep Henrietta as well, especially after learning that the stationmaster wanted to turn her into a henhouse.

## Personality

Sir Bertram Topham Hatt is strict, but funny and fair. He can be strict, but with a good reason and he deeply cares about the engines and also shows a fatherly side to them. He is quite a strong character and will remind the engines that he is in charge if they start to rebel against his authority. He does not stand bullying, and even though he is usually serious, he does enjoy a good jolly laugh.

Despite his kindness and fairness, however, there are times where Sir Bertram Topham Hatt berates the engines for situations beyond their control, although it is usually because he still feels like their carelessness or ignorance played a hand in it. Like any son, he does hold a slight bit of respect for his mother, Dowager Hatt. But like all parental relationships, there are some things he finds more personal than others.

At times, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt can be the comic relief character, having high levels of irony and occasional slapstick. He can also be overhasty and forgetful at times and misplace priorities. He also has a slight sweet tooth, having a particular taste for crème buns, ice cream, milkshakes and cake.

That being said, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt also shows a distinctly more fatherly side to his engines. When one of them goes missing, he is staunchly determined to find them, even if it means travelling entire countries to do so. He is also known to be very proud of his signature top hat, and often distresses about it should the hat come to harm. He does care about his engines much more though.

## Attire

Sir Bertram Topham Hatt is a short, chubby gentleman. He usually wears morning dress, consisting of grey trousers, a white shirt, a black tie, a yellow waistcoat, a black tailcoat and a black top hat. He is most often depicted as having thinned grey, black or brown hair and brown eyes, while in the television series, he is depicted as completely bald.

## Differences from the books, episodes and this series

* Sir Bertram Topham Hatt is still a firm fatherly figure, but he's been softened up a bit. The biggest examples being in *Daisy for Hire* and *Edward's Exploit*, both of which had Sir Charles Topham Hatt as controller instead in the books.
* Sir Bertram Topham Hatt is born much later than his book counterpart, Sir Topham Hatt I. This is to keep in line with the revamped TV series timeline (and closer timespan of stories) and order of episodes.

## Trivia

* Sir Bertram Topham Hatt's appearance is based on his look in the TV series.
* The preferred voice actor for Sir Bertram Topham Hatt is Keith Wickham who voiced Sir Topham Hatt in the UK dub and later took over the US role from Kerry Shale.