Robinson, Henry
No.155 – Sergeant Henry Robinson – 36th Heavy Artillery Group
Henry Robinson was born in Kew, Melbourne, Victoria in 1886. He was educated in Melbourne and after leaving school he found employment as a labourer.
When he was twenty two years old in 1908 Henry joined the permanent forces of the Australian Army. After his initial training he was sent to the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery and he saw service initially in Victoria and then was sent to the Artillery Barracks in Fremantle WA. Due to his good work he soon rose to the rank of Sergeant in the RAGA and resided at the actual barracks.
The permanent artillerymen were part of the local community and Henry had been seeing a local North Fremantle girl Catherine White. They were married in early 1915 and took up residence in the married Military quarters in Thompson Rd North Fremantle.
At the outbreak of the Great War many of the Artillerymen at the Barracks wanted to enlist in the AIF but as they were part of the permanent forces they were required to remain in Australia for training purposes and home defence.
However in 1915 a decision was made to send a Siege Artillery Brigade to England which would be made up of permanent artillerymen. On the 1st June 1915 Henry was one of the many men at the Barracks who were able to enlist in this new unit, which would be known as the 36th Heavy Artillery Group. He still had to pass the medical examination, which he did with flying colours. The doctor found him to be 5 feet 10 & ½ inches tall; weight of 149 lbs; chest measurement of 34-37 inches; fair complexion; brown eyes and dark hair. His religious denomination was Roman Catholic.
Shortly after they were attested at Fremantle Artillery Barracks, the men who had enlisted were shipped off to Melbourne to join the other men of the Siege Brigade. It would have been a time of mixed feelings for Henry, as he would have been excited to be leaving for a duty that he had been training for the last seven and a half years, but also sadness in that he was leaving his wife Catherine who was pregnant with their first child. She gave birth to a son, Henry George Robinson born on the 5th January 1916. But by that time Henry was already in Europe.
On the 17th July 1915 the Gunners of the 36th Heavy Artillery Group left Port Melbourne aboard the HMAT Orsova. They berthed for a time at Suez Egypt on the 12th August but did not remain there long as the ship headed on to England. Upon being disembarked in England the men were sent into camp. They were initially stationed at Lydd, then Taunton in Somerset where they spent the Christmas of 1915. The men were organised into the 54th & 55th Batteries of the 36th HAG and Henry was a member of the 55th Battery.
On February 27th 1916 Henry, as part of the 55th Battery, arrived at Boulogne France. They spent three days here and on March 7th left with their guns and travelled to Mont St Eloy near Arras where they went into billets. On March 16th 1916 the men of the 55th Battery of the Siege Brigade suffered their first casualties when the Germans shelled their billets at Mont St Eloy. Three of the Gunners were killed and fourteen were wounded. Unfortunately Henry was one of the men that was killed.
No196 Gunner George Brown of the 36th Heavy Artillery, of Fremantle, wrote the following;
We left Taunton for France at 12.55am on March 2nd and arrived at Boulogne at 4pm the same day, the trip across the Channel taking 1 hour 55 minutes. We stayed in Boulogne for four days…We left Boulogne in our motor lorries for the front on March 7th. It took us three days to get to our destination, as we had to bring our guns along with caterpillars. We have four guns each travelling in three parts. They are splendid guns to fire and very accurate….We were very unlucky when we first arrived, the Germans having spotted our billets and promptly sent over some shells killing three and wounding 14. Most of the chaps were in bed at the time (it was 2.30pm) but the chaps had been working all night mounting the guns. I was on guard at the battery at the time and could hear the shells whistling over my head, being scarcely 400 yards from the billet where the shells burst. I lost my best pal, Sgt Henry Robinson from Fremantle. He was captain of the North Fremantle juniors and extremely popular with all whom met him. He was one of the best non-com’s in the brigade and he is missed very much by the officers and men. His valuable services will never be forgotten. He leaves a young wife and child at North Fremantle…I was his best man at his wedding early in 1915 and feel his loss very much…We fired our first shot on St Patrick’s day at 4pm and the shell had a green band around it for luck.
Sergeant Henry Robinson was initially buried in a Military Cemetery at Mont St Eloy but after the war this cemetery was closed and Henry was moved to Cabaret Rouge Cemetery in Souchez France in plot XV.K.10. On either side of Henry was buried the two other Gunners killed at the same time; No.171 Bombardier William Klintworth and No.378 Gunner Edward Morgan.
These three men were the first members of the Australian forces to be killed by enemy fire on the Western Front.
His wife Catherine and son Henry would receive pensions from the military after his death. In 1922 when the war graves authorities were designing the new headstones, relatives of those killed were able to write an epitaph for their loved one’s grave. Catherine wrote the following for Henry’s grave through she would have to shorten it as it exceeded the amount of letters that were able to be used.
In our home you are never forgotten;
Sweet memory clings to your name;
True hearts that always loved you
Will ever be the same
In World War Two Henry George Robinson would serve in the 2nd AIF with regimental no. WX35148. He survived the war and lived to the age of 95, dying in 2011. Catherine died in Claremont in 1965.