Chitterne: Pte Harold Robinson

[Gareth Davies]

7061 Pte Harold Robinson, 20th Bn The Royal Fusiliers, died on 3 August 1916. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial but is buried in Chitterne, Wiltshire.

Harold Robinson was born in 1892. His parents were William & Lucy Robinson who were from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. We think Harold and his younger siblings, Nora, Amy and Cecil, were born in the Manchester area where the family had moved by 1891 although a descendant believes that at least one of the children was born here in Chitterne. His father was a builder and must have been a successful one because he bought Clump Farm, a mixed arable and livestock farm with pigs and milking cows for Harold from Walter Long. William Robinson is noted as one of principal landowners in Chitterne 1911/13, but the family didn't live here.

Harold moved to France on 15 Nov 1915. The Battalion was part of 33 Division whose troops were predominantly from the south of England although Harold had enlisted in Manchester. His Battalion was one of the 5 public school battalions which originally recruited exclusively ex public schoolboys who chose to serve as private soldiers rather than as officers.

Harold Robinson's 20th Royal Fusliers were also spared the horrors of the first few days of the Battle of the Somme. The British first attempted to capture High Wood on the 14th July and then again on the 15th but failed both times. High Wood was part of a new and well defended German trench line and an added problem was Bazentin ridge over which the guns were finding it difficult to fire, many rounds hitting the ridge and causing friendly fire casualties. A few days later the task of taking the wood fell to 33 Division, in which the 20th Fusiliers was serving as part of 19 Brigade. The day started badly. As the Fusiliers were moving forward to get into their forming up position at around 1am a German shell landed amongst them and there were 20 or so casualties. The British artillery barrage opened at 2.55am and, 40 minutes later, the leading elements of the 5th Scottish Rifles forced their way into the Wood where they came under heavy machine gun fire. On their right, the Fusiliers had also fought their way forward. Casualties quickly mounted as German machine guns, rifles and artillery poured fire onto them. During the early afternoon reinforcements arrived and this enabled the troops to be rallied and push even further forward and soon all but the northern edge was later in British hands. But at dusk the Germans heavily shelled the area and this forced the British to give up the northern half of the Wood which was quickly occupied by the enemy. The two sides dug in and at midnight the Fusiliers were relieved. 397 men, two thirds of the effective strength of the Battalion, had become casualties - dead, wounded or missing. This included every single officer. Harold Robinson was one of the 397 casualties, having been injured in the arm.

Harold Robinson's MIC states he Died Of Wounds on 25 July 1916. He is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. But Harold Robinson's body wasn't missing. In fact, on 25 July he wasn't dead. Having been injured at High Wood he contracted Tetanus and had been evacuated to Fort Pitt Hospital in Rochester, Kent. Sadly the infection took over and he died on 3 Aug. He was buried in St Mary's in Chitterne on 5 August 1916.

[Gareth Davies]

Harold Robinson died 100 years ago today. 

[Blue Dragoon]

Hi Gareth, just been for a walk with the dogs round the back of the pub and walked through the graveyard and picked up his grave. Did a bit of googling and picked up your post on the GWF. Would he not have been entitled to a Commonwealth War Grave headstone?

Edited 10 September , 2022 by Blue Dragoon

[Gareth Davies]

Yes, but he had already been buried here (in Aug 16) with the private headstone/column by the time the IWGC headstone came into existence.

[Blue Dragoon]

Ah yes of course!