Bertie arrived back in England on 20 December 1926 and went to stay with his parents in their new home in Horsell Park, Woking.

He was invited to an interview on 29 December in London with one of the Directors of Booth & Co and told that he would not be wanted any longer in his job in Sydney as the firm had been making big losses.  They would pay his salary until the end of June. He had been expecting to return to Australia after 6 months' leave.

In a letter to Meta Thresher in Sydney dated 4 January 1927 he writes "I will try to get a job with some progressive firm and work with them in England for a year or so, with the idea of opening an office for them in Sydney when I have learnt the business."

Bertie continues to write letters to Meta over the next few months, from which news of his activites can be gleaned, since many of these were saved with other family letters.  Some of the more interesting and legible ones are copied here.

His brother in law Bob Lovell invites him to accompany him on a trip in his car to the north of England and Scotland in late January.  Bob's job is to sell shock absorbers for vehicles. It was quite cold and wet on the trip with snow lying north of Glssgow.

Bertie visits the London School of Economics, where he studied 1921-23, in search of employment advice but receives no assistance, likewise at the Alexander Hamilton Institute in London.  He tries to get agencies for Rothmans Cigarettes and other agencies, but without any success. He feels there's little chance of gettng a job which will take him back to Australia.

By mid April he's fed up with it all, but then feels more cheerful as the spring has arrived, he's built a goldfish pond for his mother, been on various motor cycle outings and trials, and his sister Edna gets married on Easter Monday.

There are few references to job hunting in letters after May, plenty of outings with friends or family, the purchase of his own motorbike, In August he confesses to Meta "I should be looking hard for a job and it may seem strange that I haven't tried much lately.  But.. if I'm coming back to Sydney, I shall probably not see England or my family again for years. And as I had saved up about £300 I could afford to slack a bit and enjoy a good long stay here.... Having the means to stay at home made all the difference of course."

In August-September Bertie, his parents and other relatives are on holiday in  south Devon where a number of his mother's family live.  It's a very wet summer!

In October he has decided to return to Australia and look for a job there, but also secures an option of 6 months in NSW for an agency selling Newton's Shock Absorbers, and will take a dozen with him as a start. He also hopes to gain an agency for "rubber rear lamps".  In his last letter to Meta in the file, dated 25 October, he tells her he plans to sail on the Naldera (P & O) arriving in Sydney on 29 December.

Bertie writes to his parents from the Naldera on the voyage back to Australia, sending instalments from Marseilles, Port Said, Port Sudan, Aden, Colombo, Fremantle and Melbourne.