Sinclair Robson

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Given his mother’s maiden name Sinclair Robson, born on 22nd July 1884 in Alnmouth and baptised a month later, was the first son of farmer and stone mason John Thomas Robson and his wife Ann Eliza (nee Sinclair); they had married two years previously and already had a daughter named Anna Mary. Over the next few years the family grew with the birth of Madeline Hilda, Albert Norman and Sidney, all born whilst the family were living in Mount Pleasant, Alnmouth.

Having left the Duke’s School in Alnwick, and worked as a carpenter, in May 1907 Sinclair left Liverpool on the SS Sicilian arriving in Montreal and intending to make his way to Winnipeg, Manitoba and further work as a carpenter. By 1910 Sinclair has moved further west and applied for a land grant in Saskatchewan, it was here that he met and married Canadian Alice Belle Parker on 16th July 1913 in Saskatoon. They settled in Prince Albert and their daughter Roberta Mary was born on 3rd April the following year, with son Jack Sinclair born in 1916, and working as a land agent and carpenter Sinclair found time to join the local militia group the 29th Saskatoon Light Horse.

On 1st November 1915 Sinclair visited the local recruiting office in Prince Albert and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force becoming Private 886046 of the 65th Battalion, where because of his experience in the militia he was promoted to acting Lance Corporal the following month. Transferred to the 188th Battalion based at Camp Hughes in February, by the summer he had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and sailed with the battalion from Halifax on the SS Olympic arriving in Liverpool on 19th October 1916. Posted to camp at Westenhanger, Kent, he was then appointed as Armourer Sergeant with the newly formed 15th Reserve Battalion based at Bramshott, Hampshire, a rank he relinquished in order to be posted to France as a reinforcement for the 5th Battalion.

Joining them on 27th April 1917 as they entered the trenches around Arleux, north of Cambrai, the month of May saw the battalion in reserve moving to new billets in Houdain, north of Arras, then a month later moving into Flanders. Private Robson was wounded whilst on duty on 16th August, but remained at his post, and two days later was punished for being absent from his billet after 9pm.

Granted two weeks leave to the UK in January 1918, he was granted a seven-day extension by the War Office (reason unknown), and returned to join his unit then at Bully Grenay near Loos in northern France at the beginning of February, where he was appointed as Armourer Corporal. Relinquishing this rank at his own request in July 1918 the following month the battalion was in the trenches near Amiens and it was here that Private Sinclair was killed on 9th August 1918. The Circumstances of Death report reads “Private Robson was taking part in the attack on Warvillers on 9th August 1918. He was hit in the head by a machine gun bullet shortly after leaving the “kick off” position, death being instantaneous”.

Sinclair Robson is remembered in Alnmouth on A10.01, A10.03 and A10.06 and in Alnwick on A11.16 and A11.56

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Sergeant Robson