Name
Frank Harold Robinson
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4/6980
Bedfordshire Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2C
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St Albans Citizens Memorial, Town Hall (old) Memorial, St Albans, Tabanacle Baptist Church, St Albans, Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial, St. Peter’s Church Memorial, Mill End, Nr Rickmansworth, St. Peter's C & E Primary School Memorial, Mill End, Not on the Radlett memorials
Pre War
Frank Harold Robinson was born in 1898 in Radlett, the only son of Albert and Charlotte Robinson, and baptised on 6 February 1898 at Radlett.
On the 1911 Census the family was living at 43 Alexandra Road, St. Albans. His father Alfred was a yard foreman to a builders merchant and Frank and his only sister Alice were both scholars.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford and served with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He was killed in action in the Beaucourt sector at the Battle of Ancre on 13th November 1916 in an attack which commenced at 6.45 am.
The 63rd Division was on the north bank of the Ancre, having the river on their right. The main assault on the right was carried out by the 63rd Division. The lines of assault were formed under cover of darkness. Their first objective was the enemy's front-line system of triple trenches. The next was a road in the hollow behind called Station Road with trenches either side of it. The third was the trenches which fringed the village of Beaucourt. After the third objective had been consolidated they were then and only then to have the village itself as the final last objective.
The 190th Brigade of the 63rd (Naval) Division which contained the 4th Bedfordshire's, had been held in reserve but became aware that there had been a hitch to the right half of the 188th Brigade who had come across a concealed German redoubt bristling with machine-guns. The 190th Brigade pushed forward in the hope it would retrieve the situation but found itself involved in fierce fighting around a German redoubt and lost heavily.
His body was not recovered for burial or not identified and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Additional Information
His war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £8 18s 5d was divided between his father and mother and Miss Ethel Larkins.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Gareth Hughes, Tanya Britton, Robert and Sally Williams
