PRIVATE HUGH ROBINSON
LABOUR CORPS
16TH FEBRUARY 1918 AGE 30
BURIED: ROCQUIGNY-EQUANCOURT ROAD BRITISH CEMETERY, MANANCOURT, FRANCE
Mrs Hannah Robinson had five children, four sons and a daughter. Her eldest son, John Marsden Robinson was killed in action on 21 March 1918, just over a month after her youngest son, Hugh. Her daughter, Mary, signed for the inscription. It looks as though she must have composed it too - 'My mother's greatest sacrifice'.
Hugh was her youngest son, named after her husband who died before Hugh Jnr's first birthday. Hugh, a window cleaner, was still living at home in Buxton, Derbyshire when he joined up. The Buxton War Memorial site says that he was a small man - really small - 4 ft 11 inches and weighing 6 stone 10 lbs. He enlisted in August 1916 and served with the Labour Corps, embarking for France on 23 March 1917. There is no record of the cause of his death, but he died at a Casualty Clearing Station between the villages of Rocquigny and Equancourt on 16 February 1918.
A month later his brother, John, (also remembered on the Buxton War Memorial site) aged 41 and serving with the 36th Labour Corps, was killed on 21 March 1918, the opening day of the German Spring Offensive. He's buried in the village of Favreuil, which was overrun by the Germans before the end of the month. His wife chose his inscription:
Until we meet again
Ever remembered by
His loving wife & children