Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lieutenant Robert Colvin MC. The long shadow of WWI can be seen through the lens of the short life Lieutenant Robert Colvin MC. Colvin was born in Duaringa, Queensland and was a jeweler in Rockhampton when he enlisted in 1914. An original Anzac, he fought the Gallipoli Campaign with the 9th Battalion and was promoted to corporal whilst on the Peninsula. He had a bout of bronchitis in December that year. He was transferred to the 49th Battalion on its formation in Egypt in February 1916. The battalion deployed into the war zone in France in July 1916 and in August was ordered into the frontline trenches at Pozieres. Robert Colvin was a sergeant at this stage. In late August after the 49th came out of the line he was promoted to Second-Lieutenant. He fought at the Battle of Messines in Belgium in June 1917 and was later awarded the Military Cross for bravery in that battle, the first Queenslander to receive the MC. He spent the latter part of 1918 in England as an instructor or student at training schools and the war ended before he returned to the 49th Battalion. He arrived back in Australia 8 February 1919 in Melbourne and took a train to Brisbane.
Lieutenant Colvin survived the war, returned to Rockhampton and married Grace. Colvin however died on 9 March 1925 aged 31, a young man by any standard. He died in a military hospital at Corinda in Brisbane having spent time in the Westwood and Stanthorpe Sanatoriums for the mentally ill. For him the guns never fell silent, the War didn’t finish. He lies at peace in the South Rockhampton Cemetery on Upper Dawson Road. Grace Colvin was buried beside her husband in September 1989. The simple inscription on her plaque reads “Faithful Unto Death”. So, we can take from that that she remained a widow for most of her life carrying with her the burden of her loss of her husband for 64 years. Grace and Robert Colvin had a daughter Winifred who was just one at the time of his death.
Robert Colvin, his wife Grace, their daughter Winifred and Grace’s brother Arthur Brackstone are all buried in a family plot in the South Rockhampton Cemetery.