Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 4209 ROBINSON William Henry  25th Infantry Battalion
 
William Robinson was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, the younger of two sons of Robert and Grace Robinson. The family emigrated to Queensland when Will was less than a year old. It is not clear where the family settled to begin with but there seems to have been some connection with Blackbutt.
 
When Will presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 15th October 1915, he stated his age as 18 years and his occupation as farmer. Will’s elder brother, Joseph had enlisted three weeks before and it may have been his brother’s decision which spurred Will to also join the AIF. Both Will and Joe named their mother Grace Maxwell, who had remarried after Robert Robinson’s death, as their next of kin. Grace’s address was Emu Creek, Degilbo.
 
As was a common practice at the time, the Robinson brothers were both placed in the same unit at Enoggera, the 10th reinforcements of the 25th Battalion. The reinforcements boarded the “Commonwealth” at Pinkenba wharf on 28th March 1916 and arrived in Egypt three weeks later. Both Will and Joe had allocated three shillings of their daily pay to their mother.
 
The 25th Battalion, part of the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the AIF, had already departed Egypt for the Western Front by the time that Will and Joe arrived in camp at Tel el Kabir. There was no immediate need for the 10th reinforcements and after some time in camp, the reinforcements crossed the Mediterranean to Marseilles, arriving in France in early June. From Marseilles, Joe and Will were sent to the Australian Base Camp at Etaples.
 
The four divisions of the AIF that were in France (one division was in training in England) had arrived in time for the beginning of the great summer offensive of 1916 that General Douglas Haig had planned to commence along the shallow valley of the Somme River. The new battalions of the British conscript army walked toward the German machine guns and field guns on 1st July 1916. Casualties were horrific; 60,000 on the first day, 20,000 of which were fatal. In spite of the losses, Haig ordered his troops to push on against the well entrenched German defenders. The 1st Australian Division of the AIF was called into the battle on the 24th July with the task of taking the village of Pozieres. The accompanying artillery barrages from both sides quickly reduced the village to a pile of rubble but the village itself and a number of trenches were taken. On 29th July, the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division was given the task of following up the gains made four days before. Unlike the successes of the previous days, the attack was repulsed with significant losses; particularly for the 25th Battalion which was at the centre of the line.
 
Will, Joe and the other reinforcements were hastily moved up on 2nd August to fill the gaps in the line, while under enemy artillery fire. Three days later, Will reported to a casualty Clearing Station with shell shock. Pozieres had a lasting impression on the 25th Battalion survivors. A battalion roll call conducted after the division had endured 12 days in the line revealed that the 25th Battalion had lost 29 officers and 660 men at Pozieres.
 
The 2nd Division had a brief period of rest and reorganisation in Belgian Flanders before returning to the Somme in November 1916. While the division had been away, the front had only progressed 12 kilometres. The 25th Battalion went back into the fight at Flers before the western front was closed down for the winter. The 25th spent much of that time huddled in freezing trenches. The situation was so bad that sheepskin waistcoats had to be sourced from Australia.
 
The coming of Spring in 1917 produced movement by the Germans who began a withdrawal to heavily defended positions to their rear which the British named the Hindenburg Line. In April, the 25th were again put into the line at Bullecourt which ended in failure. Bullecourt signalled the end of the campaign on the Somme and the bulk of the British and Dominion Forces shifted north into Belgium for a summer offensive.
 
The 1917 campaign in Flanders, which was officially named as the 3rd Battle of Ypres but was more commonly referred to as Passchendaele, began at Messines in June. The 2nd Division was not required in the opening phase of the campaign and Will was able to enjoy a well earned two weeks of leave in England. He probably took advantage of the leave to visit relatives in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
 
The first in a series of battles in the Ypres salient planned on a “bite and hold” strategy began on 19thSeptember with an attack parallel to the Menin Road which ran from Ypres towards the Passchendaele Ridge. During this battle, Will sustained gun shot wounds to his side and arm. He was evacuated from the battlefield to a military hospital at Rouen where his wounds were treated and he convalesced. By the time Will rejoined his colleagues in the 25th in the first week of December, the Passchendaele campaign had ground to a halt in a sea of mud. During the second winter, conditions were more favourable with the Australians housed in comfortable Nissen Huts (an invention of a British Engineers Officer).
 
The five divisions of the AIF were billeted in the border region of France and Belgium. The collapse of the Russian Forces on the Eastern Front allowed the German Field Commander Ludendorff to shift up to 50 divisions to the Western Front for a series of assaults against the British armies, which was expected in the Spring of 1918. Operation Michael began on 21st March with a rapid advance west from the Hindenburg Line defences towards the British 5th Army on the Somme. The British could not hold the German advance and the 5th Army was close to collapse. Having been caught out by the speed of the German onslaught, General Douglas Haig ordered the brigades of the AIF to travel independently to take up defensive positions on a line in front of the city of Amiens. The 7th Brigade shifted from Belgium south to Daours on 12th April where they assisted in holding the line north of the Somme. At the end of April, the German advance was checked at Villers Bretonneux by two brigades of Australian infantry.
 
On 9th May 1918, Will reported sick to the Battalion Aid Post. His file contains no information regarding the illness but he was hospitalised at Rouen until the 22nd June when he rejoined the battalion near Villers Bretonneux.
 
On 27th June 1918, it is recorded that William Robinson was killed in action. He was just 21. There are a number of conflicting reports concerning the manner of his death recorded in the files of the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Service. Some reported that Will (or Robbie as his platoon mates called him) had been hit in the head by a grenade or a machine gun round. Some said Robinson and a Private Searle were sheltering in a trench and both killed by a shell. Another report states that Robinson and Searle were killed by a bomb thrown by an Australian patrol. The most detailed account, but which is not substantiated by any other witnesses, is that of a H.E. Hayes who claims that Robinson was in no man’s land when he was challenged by picquets in a forward post. Robinson did not respond to the challenge and so the sentries opened fire, killing him. Hayes also claimed that the incident was covered up by Lieutenant Farlie so as not to cause distress to Joseph Robinson who was nearby. Hayes makes no mention of George Searle. Allegedly, Joseph Robinson was told that his brother was shot by a sniper.
 
The Australian War Memorial has in its collection a photograph of the Grave of Frederick Currie in the Adelaide Cemetery at Corbie. Behind Currie’s grave are the graves of Will Robinson and George Searle. This evidence would suggest that reports relating to Robinson and Searle being killed together are more credible.
 
At wars end, the Adelaide Military Cemetery was expanded to include the graves of almost 900 who had been buried in the surrounding areas. Grace Maxwell chose the following inscription for her son’s headstone:
IN MEMORY OF MY DEARLY LOVED SON
MRS MAXWELL DEGILBO QLD