Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Francois Somme and Robert Thompson.

Pte 5500 Charles Edward Robson,
7th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company,
2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division

In the fields of the Somme,at Amiens, at Pozieres, at Thiepval, at Longueval, at Delville Wood, among the poppies, fought and fell under the bullets and shells, a whole generation of men of exceptional courage who, alongside their comrades , of their brothers in arms, for their country and for France, went over the top and under fire, under the bites of shrapnel gave their lives, sacrificed their youth and gave their today in the name of peace and freedom , to preserve what we have best in each of us, our humanity. For the men who stood by their side, for their children, for their loved ones and for us they endured a hell of fire and steel and in the brutality of courageous attacks, were decimated, cut down without any mercy by a senseless war thirsty for blood and flesh which dragged the world into the darkness of an endless despair but with determination, with courage, with loyalty, these young men served together with pride and did not let themselves be defeated, they held the front line without retreating a step and gave everything they had until the victory which brought to the world the peace for which so many young boys fell and remained behind under the shadows from their immaculate graves but they will never be alone and will never be forgotten because with the deepest respect and with love, with care and dignity I will always watch over them, I will bring them back to life through my visits to their graves, to through my words which will always keep their memory strong and alive so that these heroes to whom we owe so much, so that my boys of the Somme live forever.

Today, it is with the highest respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, of one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 5500 Charles Edward Robson who fought in the 7th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company, 2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 106 years ago, on December 22, 1916 at the age of 25 on the Somme front.

Charles Edward Robson was born in 1891 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of Sarah Robson (née Newton), of Hallam Street, Bendigo. Before the outbreak of the war, he served two years and eleven months in the Senior Cadets then worked as a draper and seemed to have a gift for song as he was described as "being a very good singer" by his comrades.

Charles enlisted on May 15, 1915 at Broadmeadows Camp, north of Melbourne, in the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion, then after a ten-month training period, embarked with his unit from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on April 4 1916 and sailed for Egypt.

On May 14, 1916, Charles arrived in Egypt, and was disembarked in Suez where he joined the 2nd Training Battalion then a little less than two weeks later, on May 27, marched for Alexandria from where he embarked the same day on board HMT Brittain and proceeded for England.

On June 8, 1916, Charles was disembarked at Plymouth, on the south coast of Devon and joined the 7th Training Battalion for a period of exercises in realistic war conditions on Salisbury Plain then on September 16, proceeded overseas for France.
On September 17, 1916, after a very quick and calm journey on the English Channel, Charles arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where he joined the 1st Australian Divisional Base depot and was promoted the following day to the rank of Acting Corporal with extra duty pay. On September 28, he marched out to unit and was transferred, taken on strength and reverted the next day to the rank of Private with the 7th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company, at Dominion Camp, in Busseboom, near Ypres.

The 7th Battalion was raised in 1914 at Broadmeadows Camp as the third battalion in the second Brigade of the 1st Division and had for motto "Cede Nullis" (Submit to None) and was under the command of the redoubtable, inspiring and outspoken Lieutenant Colonel Howard "Pompey" Elliot, a lawyer, citizen soldier and veteran of the Boer War. In 1917, he commanded the 15th Brigade during the battle of Polygon Wood, then in 1918 during the battles of Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux and Peronne but in July 1916 and until his death, he suffered very deeply from the death of his men during the Battle of Fromelles and took his own life in 1931.

After arriving at Dominion Camp on September 29, 1916, Charles and the men of the 7th Battalion underwent a period of training, a medical inspection of the entire battalion, parades and exercises including bayonet fighting and musketry exercises and then on 9 October joined the trenches in the Hill 60 sector near Ypres where the battalion relieved the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion and fought under heavy fire from enemy artillery and snipers and in calmer times were employed in the construction and improvement of new trenches in this sector of the front and on October 14, were relieved by the men of the 21st Australian Infantry Battalion who were caught in an artillery barrage on entering the trenches and then the next day, the 7th Battalion moved to Steenvoorde, in northern France, via Reninghelst, Poperinge and Abeele.

On October 16, 1916, Charles and his unit arrived at Steenvoorde. The next day, they moved to Arneke then to Moulle, in Pas-De-Calais, where the 7th Battalion received reinforcements and on October 20, embarked by train for St Riquier, in the Somme, where the Australian Imperial Force had already suffered very heavy losses since July 23 and the start of their first major engagement on this front, in Pozieres where the Australians lost 23,000 men in less than seven weeks of a indescribable hell on earth.
On October 21, 1916, the 7th Battalion arrived at St riquier then marched through Bussus, Amiens, Querrieu, Ribemont, Buire, and moved into Billets at Dernancourt two days later but had little rest and the following day joined the "pommiers Camp ", located near Fricourt and the front line where Charles and his comrades found little comfort because everything was wet due to the autumn rains and it is noted in the battalion's war diary that "the men did their best to make themselves comfortable by collecting old timber,iron,wire netting,and making shelters with their second blankets.A large quantity of whale oil is being used to keep the men's feet in good condition." A period of training and weapons inspections followed and on October 29 the battalion left Pommiers Camp for Bernafay Camp, located near the current Bernafay Wood British Cemetery then the same day, joined the front line and the trenches, including the "Switch Trench" and the "Gap Trench" between Flers and Gueudecourt which were under fire from German artillery.

On November 3, 1916, the 7th Battalion moved to Gueudecourt and occupied the "F Line" where they relieved the men of the totally exhausted 5th Australian Infantry Battalion.On November 5, on their left flank at Flers, they saw, helplessly, the first Australian attack (led by the men of the 1st and 7th Brigades) against a highly fortified German trench system called "The Maze." By this time the Somme battlefield had been deluged with rain and the attacks were made in atrocious conditions. The attacking waves of troops were sucked down by the cloying mud and thus, unable to keep up with their creeping artillery barrage, became easy targets for German machine-gunners and riflemen.Despite initial successes, this first attack, disastrous, was repelled.
Two days later, on November 7, 1916, the 7th Battalion moved to Bernafay Camp where they remained until November 12 and the following day, after a stop at Dernancourt, were sent to Ribemont for a period of general training, with, at this time, a force of 847 men then on November 18 embarked by train for St Vast which they reached the following day. After hard fighting, the men of the 7th Battalion were able to have a little rest, some men (including maybe Charles) were granted leaves for Amiens and it is easy to imagine them relaxing and marveling at the beauty of our beautiful cathedral in Amiens. Unfortunately the war did not stop and on November 30 they returned to the Somme and arrived in the village of Vignacourt located behind the front lines then on December 1, moved to the Buire rest Camp where they remained until December 5.

On December 6, 1916, the 7th Battalion marched for "B Camp", near Bernafay Wood and bivouacked here alongside the men of the 59th Australian Infantry Battalion then on December 8, moved back to Gueudecourt and once again, were ruthlessly and tirelessly hammered by German artillery. On December 15, A Company, including Charles, occupied the "Grease Trench". Less than a week later, on December 21, A Company was engaged in construction work in the Grease Trench as well as the Whale trench but the next day, on December 22, Charles met his fate and coming out of his dugout and while the 7th Battalion was going to be relieved, he was seriously wounded by a shell in his forehead then was immediately evacuated to the 3rd Field Ambulance near Bernafay Wood where he died a few hours later, he was 25 years old.

Today, Charles Edward Robson rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Bernafay Wood British Cemetery, Montauban, Somme.

The circumstances leading to Charles's death are recorded in Australian Red Cross records and described by his comrades as follows:
"I carried him from "supports" to the Dressing Station near "Bull Run." He was unconcious only just alive,from a bad shell wound in the forehead.We heard that he died shortly after and I think that his grave would be near Brigade HQ. I was a stretcher bearer and shared the same dug-out with him just before he was wounded. I was attached to his platoon of A Company."(2835 Private Mervyn Thomas Rees David, 7th Australian Infantry Battalion.)

"Robson left the dug-out at 3:15 to go out from the support trenches.He would have been relieved altogether at 3.30.A whizzbang caught him right in the centre of the forehead. We carried him to the dressing station, but he was very low." (2153 Private Vallance, 7th Australian Infantry Battalion)

"The 7th Battalion was taking over in front of Flers,and while walking along the road,a shell exploded,killing Robson instantly. He wa buried next morning by two of the Company cooks, and I was present at the time. It was impossible to hold a service, and no cross or identification mark was erected over the grave. I knew Robson quite well, and he came from Bendigo, Victoria." (5468 Private James Thomas Richards, 1st Anzac Cyclist Corps)

Charles, brave and determined, it is with honor that alongside your comrades, you answered the call of duty, the call of Australia and France, to do more, so much more than your duty but to do what was right, to fight alongside all freedom-loving people, to defend and preserve the peace for which an entire generation of men stood up in loyalty and for which they proudly served alongside their friends in the trenches and the poppies of the Somme which were the witnesses of their courage but also of their sacrifices on the battlefields which were involved in the despair and the darkness of a world at war whose humanity was bruised between the jaws of this monster of blood and fire who, day and night, month after month, in fury and brutality, always demanded more lives but these young men who all volunteered never backed down and gave all they had and sacrificed their youth without ever complaining despite what they endured in the darkest hours of history, they continued to fight and to move forward giving their hearts, with the strength of their hopes and their dreams that war never broke and far from home, through their courage and their acts of bravery, united in the ANZAC spirit, they made the whole young and strong Australian nation proud, they brought to their children, to their loved ones but also to the French people a new hope, a new light that pierced through dark clouds and doubts.Again and again, in the hell of Pozieres, in the madness of the assaults on Mouquet Farm, despite the death of their friends, of their brothers who fell one after the other under the bullets, through the explosions, under the shrapnel, through the poisonous gases, slowed down by the mud in which they fought up to their knees sunk in these putrid quagmires, they never gave up and found in the camaraderie, in the brotherhood of their regiments, of their battalion, a new impetus , the strength and the courage to cross the lines of barbed wire, to charge bayonets forward driven by a remarkable state of mind and to face death, eye to eye, they forgot their fears and encouraged their brothers until victory or until their last breath but each of them was ready to pay the supreme sacrifice, not for eternal glory but to give future generations a chance to live in a better world, to live without fear of tomorrow, to live without fear of death.Watching over each other, in terrible bloodbaths, through open cemeteries, in nauseating blood-reddened mud, they faced their fate with the utmost determination and fought the good fight, not just for to put an end to this war but to put an end to all the wars and that, through their eyes was worth all the efforts and after so much pain, sacrifices shared together, in 1918, in Amiens, in Villers-Bretonneux, they stopped the German advance and saved France but the price of victory and peace was terribly high and looking behind them, when they laid their eyes on the road travelled, on the devastated and blood-strewn fields, they saw thousands young Diggers, their friends, fathers and brothers who lay lifeless, eyes closed who did not have the chance to return home but who, on these sacred fields of France, found eternal peace, the silence of their last resting place where they still stand proudly among the poppies who grow between their white graves which carry for eternity, the names and the memory of these young boys on whom I will always watch over with respect and gratitude so that their faces, their stories and their sacrifices are never forgotten, to bring them to life ,so that their names live forever and this is for me, more than a duty, much more than an honor, it is a pride and a privilege, the pride of giving my life so that theirs shine forever in the light of remembrance. Thank you so much Charles, for everything. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him, we will remember them.

I would like, with the deepest respect and with all my heart, to thank Mr Robert Thompson who had very kindly asked me to visit the grave of his great uncle Charles and who, with infinite kindness, authorized me to write this tribute to honor the memory of his great uncle on whom I will always watch with care.