Selected Biographies

Robertson, Amy – Born: Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1874.  Home: The School House, The Green, Long Melford (1901) to [1918].  Occupation: Dressmaker (1901).  Service Record: Amy was a volunteer with the British Red Cross Society from August to September 1918, working as a Volunteer Nurse at Suffolk Hospital, Ampton Hall near Bury St Edmunds.[1]

Robinson, Charles Edward – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 26.11.1880.[2]  Parents: John Sykes Robinson (Inspector of Nuisance and Sanitary Surveyor) and Elizabeth [née Meaney].  Family Connections: Brother to George Frederick Robinson [b1874].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1881), Station Road, Long Melford (1891), 8 Fernhurst Road, Fulham, London [1903], 84 Devereaux Drive, Wallasey, Cheshire [1919], 56 Longland Road, Wallasey (1939).  Occupation: Barman [1903], Army Pensioner and Caretaker for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, Cat and Dog Shelter (1939).  Married: Elsie Fairclough in 1927.  Service Record: Charles enlisted in 1903 as Gnr.17424 with N^o. 8 Company, Royal Garrison Artillery, transferring to the Army Reserve in 1906.  He was mobilised on 5.8.1914 and posted to France with 116^th Heavy Battery, RGA from 21.8.1914 to 15.3.1915, when he received multiple shrapnel wounds, receiving treatment up to November 1915.  He received his discharge in May 1919.[3]  During the Second World War he was an Air Raid Precaution officer for animals.[4]

Robinson, George – Born: Grantham, Lincolnshire on 22.3.1893.[5]  Parents: John Robinson of Grantham, Lincolnshire (Butler) and Esther [née Gammons].  Family Connections: Brother to Thomas Robinson [b1895].  Home: Station Road, Knebworth, Hertfordshire (1901), HMS Astaea, Shanghai, China (1911).  Occupation: Telegraph Boy (1911).  Service Record: George enlisted in 1909 as Boy Sailor N^o. J3857 with the Royal Navy. In 1911 he was on the 2^nd Class cruiser HMS Astraea off Shanghai, China.  From 10.2.1914 to 21.5.1916 as an Able-Bodied Seaman he served on the battlecruiser HMS Indomitable where he saw action at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, transferring to the battleship HMS Hibernia from 13.9.1916 to 29.8.1917.  He received his discharge in 1923.[6]

Robinson, George Frederick – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 9.6.1874.[7]  Parents: John Sykes Robinson (Inspector of Nuisances and Sanitary Surveyor for Melford Rural District Council) and Elizabeth [née Meaney].  Family Connections: Brother to Charles Edward Robinson [b1880].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1881), Station Road, Long Melford (1891).  Service Record: George enlisted in 1896 as Tpr.3903 with 13^th Hussars, posted to South Africa from 1899 to 1902, seeing action in the Second Anglo-Boer War and transferring to the Army Reserve in 1903.[8]  It is not known if he saw service during the First World War as no extant record has been found.

Robinson, James Robert – Born: Hilgay, Norfolk on 21.11.1884.[9]  Home: River Bank, Hilgay, Norfolk (1891 to 1901), lodging with Pamela Etteridge (widow) at The Elders, Station Road, Long Melford (1911), School House, Honington, Norfolk (1921), Hundon, Suffolk (1939).  Occupation: Pupil Teacher at St Mark’s School (1901), Certified Teacher in Long Melford (1911), Elementary School Teacher (1921), Schoolmaster (1939).  Married: Edith Lizzie Emsden in 1911.  Service Record: No definitive military record has been found for the period of the Great War, however during the Second World War James was an Air Raid Precaution Warden in Hundon.[10] Died: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1972.

Robinson, Macleod Bawtree [CMG] – Born: Cape Colony, South Africa on 12.1.1858.  Parents: Edward Arthur Robinson and Emma.  Home: Already, Heathfield Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Hampshire (1911), Pound Hall, The Green, Long Melford [1918 to 1935].  Occupation: Colonial administrator, Commissioner of the Cape Police in 1904 and author of Notes and Criminal Procedure and Police Duty in 1905.  He was appointed as a Visitor of Licensed Houses under ‘The Lunacy Acts, 1890 to 1922’ and listed as a Justice of the Peace in 1933.  Married: Annie Ayliff [d1891] in 1887 and Theodora Eugenie Dahl in 1897.  Service Record: Bawtree Robinson served in various colonial wars from 1877 through to the Second Anglo-Boer War, being town commandant during the Siege of Kimberley.  For his service to the British Empire, he was appointed a Companion of The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George [CMG] and on 8.3.1915 was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Army Service Corps East Anglian Divisional Train.[11]  In February 1919 he sat as a member of the Long Melford War Memorial Committee.  His generosity and concern for the returning veterans of the village was made clear in 1920 when he purchased the Lecture Hall in Hall Street and presented it to them as an ex-service men’s club.  He also became the newly constituted Long Melford Ex-Service Men’s Club’s first President.[12]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 30.8.1935.[13]

Robinson, Thomas – Born: Grantham, Lincolnshire on 1.5.1895.[14]  Parents: John Robinson (Butler) and Esther [née Gammons].  Family Connections: Brother of George Robinson [b1893]; also, brother-in-law of Frederick George Tolchard [b1888], Leslie Arthur Tolchard [b1894] and Bernard Newberry Tolchard [b1898].  Home: Station Road, Knebworth, Hertfordshire (1901), The Green, Long Melford (1911), 14 Church Road, Great Cornard, Suffolk [1922], Baileul Villa, Sudbury Road, Great Cornard, Suffolk [1939].  Occupation: Wheelwright (1911), Carpenter [1915 to 1939].  Married: Eva Beatrice Tolchard of Long Melford in 1917.[15]  Service Record: Thomas enlisted on 12.4.1915 as Air Mechanic N^o. 4575 with the Royal Flying Corps, being posted to France from 5.3.1916 to 10.5.1916 with N^o. 23 Squadron.  He was promoted to Flight Sergeant in 1916 transferring on 1.4.1918 to the Royal Air Force and receiving his discharge in 1922.[16]

Notes – [1] British Red Cross Record Card.  [2] 1939 Register.  [3] Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329], and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [4] 1939 Register.  [5] RN Record.  [6] Royal Navy Registers of Seaman’s Services [ADM 188/654] and Royal Navy Medal and Award Rolls [ADM 171/113].  [7] Baptism Register 18.12.1874, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [8] Chelsea Hospital British Army Service Record [WO 97] up to 1903.  [9] 1939 Register.  [10] 1939 Register.  [11] Supplement to the London Gazette 24.3.1915 and 8.4.1915.  [12] For a fuller description of his career see https//angloboerwar.com.  For appointments see Bury Free Press 21.10.1933.  Bawtree Robinson appears in the group photograph of returning Great War veterans taken at Melford Hall, Long Melford during the Peace Day Celebration of 19.7.1919.  At the time of writing the photograph is on display in the Long Melford Heritage Centre.  For details of the Ex-Service Men’s Club see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 30.11.1922.  I am also grateful to Steve Dudden of Long Melford for additional information on Bawtree Robinson’s generosity towards the returning veterans.  I am grateful to the National Gallery for granting permission to use a copy of Bawtree Robinson’s portrait.  [13] National Probate Calendar. [14] 1939 Register.  [15] Marriage Register 6.12.1917, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  See and article in Suffolk and Essex Free Press 19.12.1917.  [16] Air Member for Personnel and predecessors: Airman’s Records [AIR 79/60].