Concord's Best: Dr. William G. Best
- Emma Leuschner
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
There is only one man in the entire world who can hold the title of delivering the first baby in liberated France during D-Day, and that man is Dr. William Grew Best.
Dr. Best was born on March 29th, 1914, in Washington D.C., to John Andrew Best Jr. and Margretta Bertha Grew. William was the son of a federal bank examiner. The Bests relocated to Wilkes-Barre, PA, by the 1920s and then to Greene, Ohio, by the 1930s. Best studied at Georgetown Medical School in Washington D.C., followed by an internship at Chester Hospital in 1941 in Chester, PA.
Dr. Best's medical studies were cut short on August 1st, 1942, when he entered the United States Military at Carlisle, PA as a medic. He served in the 101st Airborne Division and served his first combat mission in Normandy, France, on June 6th, 1944— famously known as D-Day.
Miraculously surviving the initial descent into Normandy around 1 a.m., Dr. Best and other medics set up an aid station at a residential home in St. Marie-Englise. The heavy fighting of D-Day commenced around 5 a.m., and Dr. Best fought and aided injured soldiers tirelessly throughout the long day. Despite the ceaseless death and destruction of war, a very different calling pulled Dr. Best away at 9:30 p.m. that same day.
The homeowner of the property where the aid station was located came down the stairs exasperated and emotional, screaming in French for help. He led Best upstairs to find a woman, his wife, in active labor. Dr. Best immediately sprung into action to aid the pained woman. Years later, Dr. Best recalled this moment to the Delaware County Daily Times:
"Yes, we were busy but we had time for this. Every life is important." --Delaware County Daily Times, 20 August 1968
After 15 minutes, a baby boy was born in the late evening of June 6th, 1944. Jean Yves-Bertot: the first child born in liberated France.
Births to a background of artillery fire and by the light of a small kerosene lamp are tough to forget ... When you consider all the wounded and dying that night, seeing a child born was a really beautiful thing. -- Delaware County Daily Times, 20 August 1968
After the war, Dr. Best returned home to continue a long career in medicine. He moved to Concord Township, where he resided at 55 Ivy Mills Road with his wife and owned a property along Baltimore Pike in the village of Concordville at 749 Baltimore Pike.
Dr. Best's medical career was primarily in pathology, and he served as the chief of pathology and the director of the laboratory at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. Best was an upstanding community member and gave public lectures and talks at the Concord Grange, such as a special lecture on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Dr. William Grew Best and his wife Nancy Tucker Best are buried at St. John's Episcopal Church cemetery in Ward, PA.
Dr. Best kept in contact with the Bertot family later in his life. They regularly exchanged letters, and Dr. Best surely rememebered the birth of Jean Yves-Bertot for the rest of his life.
He will always remember those 15 minutes when June 6, 1944, stopped being D-Day for the birth of one little boy. -- Delaware County Daily Times, 20 August 1968
Comments