A figure made out of liquorice allsorts, Bertie first appeared on January 1st 1929.
He was the creation of a Bassett's company employee, Jack McEwan, and was the product of months of internal discussion within the organisation.
Liquorice Allsorts themselves were created in a much more haphazard fashion.
In 1899 Charlie Thompson, a sales rep for the Bassett company, dropped his tray of samples as he showed them to the client and mixed up the sweets.
The client liked the random assortment of confections and a new selection was born.
Bertie married Betsy, another character made of sweets in February 2009...
