Name
Phillip James Robinson
1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/11/1914
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2636
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 54 and 56.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the missing in Belgium.
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Grammar Memorial - now Richard Hale School, Hertford, St Mary’s Church Memorial, Ware, Christchurch Memorial, Ware, Ware Town Memorial, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Cheshunt memorials
Pre War
Phillip James Robinson was born in 1892 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire son of Robert Robinson a, Omnibus Driver and Charlotte Letitia Robinson (nee Peppiatt) (Lottie), their only son.
Philip was Baptised on 16th October 1892, at St Luke’s Church, Shepherds Bush, Middx.
1901 Census records Philip aged 8, living with his parents at, 45 Vespan Road, Shepherds Bush, the family had a Boarder Henry Packford.
1911 Census, Philip (18) was employed as a Clerk, living with his parents at, 75 New Road, Ware, Herts.
The family later lived at 66 Vicarage Road, Ware, Herts.
He was a Sunday School teacher and member of the choir in St Mary’s Church, Ware.
Wartime Service
Philip enlisted at Hertford, his service number 2636, indicates he was with the Hertfordshire Regiment before the outbreak of war possible as a Territorial.
The Battalion was mobilized for war on 1st November 1914, while at Bury St. Edmonds, and issued with the new “Sort Magazine Lee Enfield” Rifle (SMLE) on 3rd November 1914.
Philip and his Battalion left Bury St. Edmonds by train on 5th November 1914, embarking on the “City of Chester” for Le Havre, France, sailing at midnight of the 5th/6th November, arriving at mid-day, they disembarked and marched the 31/2 miles to No.2. Rest camp.
Philip was killed in action on 19th November 1914, by a shell while resting having just come out of the front line on the Menin Road. He was one of the first members of the Hertfordshire Regiment to die in WW1.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the missing in Belgium.
Although Phillip's name is not mentioned the event that led to his death is described in a lengthy article which appeared in the local paper on the 5 December 1914, with variations on other local papers later. it was based on an interview with a wounded Letchworth soldier, Arthur Garner, part of which describes the death of ‘Pelly’ (Pulley *1).
“On Thursday the cold became more intense, and snow began to fall until about three inches lay on the ground and on Thursday, at dinner time, their acquaintance with shelling began. Some of the shells would bury themselves in the ground and burst, hurling the earth in all directions and burying the men in dirt. They knew when they were coming by the whiz they made through the air, and they all went down and waited until safe. The noise of their bursting deafening them for five or ten minutes. Then a shell burst in their midst, he was knocked over and felt a sharp pain in his right arm and knew he had been hit. At the same time Weston(*2) and Stoughton, of Royston, and Foster, of Hitchin were wounded, and Pelly(sic), of Royston, was killed. He (Arthur Garner ) looked round and saw one man literally covered from head to foot with blood; another man, Cross, of Hertford, had his jaw broken. They lay in various states of injury, until about six o’clock, when the ambulance men came with stretchers and conveyed the worst cases to hospital. He was able to walk. The men, wounded or not, were all in high spirits. There was very little rifle firing, but he saw one man “pot” three Germans and another, a Royston man, pick off one as clean as a whistle.”
*1 Private 1911 Frank Pulley.
*2 Probably Private Tom Weston who was killed on 31 July 1917.
Additional Information
His effects of £4-00s-01d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £3, went to his father Robert.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Malcolm Lennox, Jonty Wild
