Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

17 October - 11 November 1918. The final stage of the British advance saw them cross the Selle and the Sambre rivers as the relentless pressure was kept on the retreating Germans. By the 11th November 1918 the British army had returned to Mons, where it all started for them back in August 1914 when it made its first contact with the Germans, and where the war stopped when the Armistice was declared on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Detail :

"Trained as an engineer and at the outbreak of war joined the Royal Naval Air Service. As a keen motorcyclist he moved to the RNAS Armoured Car Division and then the Army’s Motor Machine Gun Service (MMGS) where he was commissioned as an officer. The MMGS was where many of the first tank crews were recruited from; Eric was among them and trained as a tank commander. He and his crew fought in the first ever tank battle at Flers-Courcelette in France in September 1916. Despite a friendly fire incident he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in command after his crew had to dig out their tank. In the following two months he was commanding two tanks that were hit and destroyed. In 1917 Robinson led three tanks at the Battle of Arras and also fought at Passchendaele. During the German Spring Offensive in 1918 he was wounded, but returned to be awarded a Bar to his MC at the Battle of Amiens, for moving on foot under heavy German shellfire to direct his tanks. At the final large battle of the war, The Battle of the Sambre, on November 4, Robinson commanded tanks that supported his unit during the fighting."

See also: Deep South Media.

He appeared in the "Motorcycle" magazine and periodical, on Page 49 of the 18th January 1918 edition. The article says : - "GALLANTRY WITH THE "TANKS." The Military Cross has been awarded to Lt. F.A. (Eric) Robinson, of Seven Kings, for great gallantry displayed whilst in command of a "Tank.". After tremendous fighting his machine became "ditched" which necessitated fourteen hours's hard digging under heavy fire to release it. On another occasion his "Tank" was hit by a direct shell and damaged, but he got his men out safely and immediately went into the trenches and worked a machine gun.

Lieut. Robinson joined the Navy in November of 1914, entering the R.N.A.S., later transferring to the M.G.C., in which he obtained a commission. He is a keen motor cyclist, his mount being a Zenith."

A picture of him riding his motorcycle with his wife in the sidecar (both "sidecarists") is shown in the same publication.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley