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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Lieut Cecil Leon Roberts, RFC, later PoW


daggers

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I have found references to this officer being captured but my attempts at the BRC's  PoW cards drew blank, as they seem to have plenty of 'Robert', but no 'Roberts'..

He was previously in the PoW's Volunteers, South Lancs.

Any clues please?

Daggers

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You will find another card for him under Robert  Royal Air Force here

DONT FORGET TO LOOK AT THE BACK OF THE CARD !!

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C_G1_E_15_01_0073_0767_1.JPG.decaee35813f36785c5e654bf0c8e72f.JPG

 

Edited by charlie962
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I am uncertain if you requested more biographical details about Lieutenant Roberts, but the following may be of interest.  Cecil Leon Roberts was born

in 1895 (birth registered in the 2nd Quarter of the year) at Liverpool, the son of Richard M. & Emilie Roberts.  Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the

3rd Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Volunteers), he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps and qualified as a pilot.

Appointed a Flying Officer on 18 September 1916, he embarked to France on 20 September and was posted to 11 Squadron on 21 September.

His final flight occurred on 17 October 1916.  With 2nd Lieut. James Lewis Pulleyn as his observer, Roberts was piloting one of five FE2b two-seaters

of 11 Squadron that were carrying out a photographic reconnaissance of Queant, an area of important strategic interest because it was the site of

the construction for the Hindenburg Line.  During their flight to return to their airfield, the 11 Squadron aeroplanes were attacked by 20 German

aircraft and Roberts's aircraft was shot down by Lieut. Gustav Leffers and two other pilots of Jasta 1.  Pulleyn, the 19 year old observer from

London, was killed, and Roberts was wounded.  His airplane, FE2b 6965, crashed between Le Sars and Serre, southwest of Bapaume in the Somme

region, and Roberts was able to evade capture for a day.  Well behind German lines, Roberts wandered into an outpost of the 132nd Reserve Infantry

Regiment of the 24th Division in the early morning fog of 18 October and was captured. After two years as a prisoner of war in Germany, Roberts was

repatriated at Jutland on 18 December 1918  I did not locate any information about Cecil Roberts's life and activities subsequent to the war.

Regards,

Josquin

 

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Dear josquin,

Brilliant research effort!

Kindest regards,

Kim.

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Hear, hear!  A very full account.  In return I can add that Roberts married a sister of John Mills, the actor, and under a different name became a professional ballroom dancer, possibly the first to introduce the Charleston to Liverpool, if not the UK. As this was post Armistice I had better stop there.

D

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After the war a professional dancer and, from the 1930's, a frame maker for many leading artists and was employed by the National Gallery, Tate Gallery, and the Imperial War Museum - see #9:

JP

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As there wasn‘t a Reserve Infanterie Regiment 132, I suggest he was taken PoW by either Infanterie Regiment 139 of the 24 Infantry Division or by Reserve Infanterie Regiment 133 of the 24 Reserve Division. As both were Royal Saxon units perhaps pal @bierast can provide clarification.

 

Charlie

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11 hours ago, charlie2 said:

As there wasn‘t a Reserve Infanterie Regiment 132, I suggest he was taken PoW by either Infanterie Regiment 139 of the 24 Infantry Division or by Reserve Infanterie Regiment 133 of the 24 Reserve Division. As both were Royal Saxon units perhaps pal @bierast can provide clarification.

 

Definitely a regiment of 24.ID - at the time the division held the front between Pys and Warlencourt with its sister 40.ID alongside on the Butte de Warlencourt. See map below from Sachsen in Grosser Zeit. To be specific, IR 133 was on the (German) right (holding the Spinne, Eckriegel and Roter Riegel), IR 139 in the centre (holding the Gallwitzriegel) and IR 179 on the left (holding the Lüneschloßriegel). So either IR 133 or 139 - it's possible the event is mentioned in the relevant regimental history, but the one for IR 133 is rather thin (having been put together decades after the war and published in 1969!).

 

061.jpg.ca4d3efc4790844fd1ef5e14d6dfb846.jpg

Edited by bierast
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