Neville Brockhouse was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, on July 15, 1918, to homestead farmers. Brockhouse had one sister, Alice Evelyn, and two brothers, one of whom died in infancy, and another who later became a railroad civil engineer. In 1926 the Brockhouse family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Bertram and his siblings grew up.

Financial difficulties during the Great Depression caused Brockhouse's family to move to Chicago, Illinois, in 1935 in search of better opportunities. Brockhouse began attending Central YMCA College (later renamed Roosevelt University), taking technical courses. He learned to repair and design radios and worked for a short time in the laboratory of a small electronics firm. In 1938 the family decided to return to Vancouver, where Brockhouse continued to repair radios for a living.

Anti-totalitarian and anti-Communist feelings inspired Brockhouse to enlist in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1939. He was in the navy for six years, during which...