Bertram George Tivey was born on 2 May 1894 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. He was the eldest child of Louis Albert Tivey, a cycle maker and patented inventor, and Elizabeth Mary Done.
Bertram married Dorothea Mary Douglas in 1918 in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. They had one son.
Bertram and Dorothea were married for 63 years, before Bertram died in 1983 in Rugby, Warwickshire, aged 89; Dorothea died the following year aged 86.