Brothers' names added to memorial

Kyt · Nov 11, 2008

BBC NEWS | England | London | Memorial names veteran brothers

The family of two brothers who died fighting in World War I have had their names engraved on a memorial in west London 90 years after their deaths.

Alfred and Arthur Robinson, from Ealing, were honoured for the first time on Remembrance Day as their names were added to the Ealing War Memorial.

Alfred James Robinson, a private in the 12th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, was 17 when he died in 1915.

Arthur Robinson, a regular soldier, was killed in Russia in 1919.

'Presumed dead'

Ron Lightning, who is the nephew of the Robinson brothers, researched his family history for years and convinced Ealing Council to add the names of his maternal uncles to the list.

Mr Lightning cited the 1923 Act of Parliament, which secures the right for all the fallen of the Great War to be commemorated on a local municipal memorial, to get the Robinsons a place in the honour roll.

The brothers' names are engraved on the Ealing War Memorial at the entrance to Pitshanger Manor.

Mr Lightning said: "My mother didn't say much at all except that uncles and (her) brothers had died in the war.

"I regret now that I didn't ask her any questions about them or more details about them."

Alfred Robinson joined the army in 1914 and enlisted at Halton Camp as a private.

He died on 27th September 1915 and was buried in the Anglo-French Cemetery at Thiepval on the Somme along with 73,000 other soldiers who had no known grave.

The teenage soldier's battalion was involved in the Battle of Loos in France and he was marked as "presumed dead". He was one of the few with a marked grave.

Arthur Robinson, a regular soldier, was killed at Archangel in Russia in 1919 when the British Army was sent to support the Russians against the Bolsheviks.

Mr Lightning is still looking into Arthur's history and his role in the war.
Click to expand...

Name: ROBINSON, ALFRED JAMES
Initials: A J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
Unit Text: 12th Bn.
Age: 17
Date of Death: 27/09/1915
Service No: 16517
Additional information: Son of Solomon and E.E. Robinson, of 36, Grove Rd, Ealing, Middx.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: II. C. 9.
Cemetery: THIEPVAL ANGLO-FRENCH CEMETERY, AUTHUILE

Name: ROBINSON
Initials: A H
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)
Unit Text: 2nd Bn.
Date of Death: 27/06/1919
Service No: L/9906
Additional information: (buried Semenovka (Bereznik) Cem. Extension).
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Sp. Mem. B118.
Cemetery: ARCHANGEL ALLIED CEMETERY

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