Sgt 57378 Robert Robertson

• Age: 32
• From: Perrick, Kirkcudbright
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W. Saturday 27th April 1918
• Commemorated at: Grand Seraucourt Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: VI.B.11

Robert Robertson was born in Perrick, Kirkcudbrightborn on 29th December 1886, the eldest son of Robert Robertson and Elizabeth (née Lindsay).  His father was born in Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire, and his mother in Mauchline, Ayrshire.  He had younger sisters Annie, Mary (Maggie), Janet, Hannah, and Lizzie, and a younger brother Thomas, all born in Urr, Kirkcudbrightshire. 

In 1891 his parents are farming at Maidenholm Farm, Dalbeattie, with three children and a domestic servant.  Robert is 5. 

They are still at Maidenholm Farm in 1901. His father is 49, his mother 44. Robert is 15, listed as a farmer’s son, Annie is 14, Maggie 12, Janet 9, Hannah 8, Thomas is 5, and Lizzie 10 months.  They have a visitor, James McNaught, 39. 

Unfortunately the 1911 Scotland census is not available.

His mother Elizabeth died in 1912, aged 56, living in Glenshallock Place, Dalbeattie. The family moved to Glasgow, and lived at 15 Byers Road, Partick.  An online commemorative site states that Robert worked as a dock labourer in Glasgow before enlisting.  

He enlisted in Glasgow and was originally Private 1061, Lowland Divisional Cyclist Company. 

He married Nicholas [sic] McCaig on 31st December 1915 in Dalbeattie.   

At some point Robert was transferred to the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, and subsequently to the 18th Battalionn K.L.R., possibly when the 20th Bn was disbanded in France in February 1918.  He served in 3 Company, 12th Platoon as Sergeant 57378. 

According to the details on the Pension Card, Robert was declared Missing between 21- 28 March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. 

International Red Cross records, received from the Germans, show that Robert was captured, with a pin shot wound (“steckschuss”) to the right thigh, and died of his wounds in a German field hospital at Cugny. He was buried in the neighbouring “Ehrenfriedhof” (cemetery of honour), in grave 245, marked with a cross showing date of death as 27th April. The German list of the dead dated 29th July 1918 submitted to the ICRC gives his date of death as 20th April. 

(Cugny Military Cemeteries, near Ham were used by the British and the Germans and contained 88 British graves from February-June 1918.) 

His loved ones made enquiries with the British Red Cross on 02nd August 1918, and a further enquiry on 20th November 1918.  The ICRC records do not show that information was requested from the ICRC in Geneva. 

It was not until eight months after he was declared Missing that his family were officially notified, announcing his death in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard on 23rd November 1918:

“On the 27th April, 1918, died from wounds (as prisoner of war) in the Field Hospital at Cugny, France, Sergeant Robert Robertson, 18th King’s Liverpool Regiment, aged 32 years, eldest son of Robert Robertson, 15 Byers Road, Partick, and beloved husband of Nicholas M’Caig, 43 Alpine Street, Dalbeattie. - Buried in the Cemetery of Honour, Cugny, France.” 

His death was published in the Weekly Casualty List on 14th January 1919,

“Previously reported Missing, now Died as Prisoner of War in German Hands”. 

In September 1920 the graves were concentrated, and Robert’s body was removed, along with those others buried at Cugny, and he was re-interred at Grand Seraucourt British Cemetery, Aisne, where he now rests. 

The Cemetery was made in 1920-26 by the concentration of graves from the battlefields and from other burial grounds

II Corps passed through this neighbourhood on the Retreat from Mons in August, 1914, and it was lost in the early days of the Fifth Army retreat in March, 1918.

There are now over 2,000, 1914-18 and a small number of 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, almost two-thirds from the 1914-18 War are unidentified and special memorials are erected to two soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried here. Other special memorials record the names of 32 United Kingdom soldiers, buried by the enemy, whose graves could not be found. In Plots III, IV and V are many graves, identified collectively but not individually, which are marked by headstones superscribed: "Buried near this spot".

The British Cemetery covers an area of 4,732 square metres and is enclosed by a stone rubble wall. 

His headstone bears the epitaph:

“HE FOUGHT THE FIGHT THE VICTORY WON AND ENTERED INTO REST” 

His widow Nicholas, at 43 Alpine Street, Dalbeattie, received a pension of 16/3d a week from December 1918.  The Pension Card records that a decision was made on 14th December 1920 that his widow was ineligible for the ordinary pension of £1-3s-4d, reason “married after enlistment”.  The pension card also notes, “presumed dead 15th April 1919”. 

Soldiers’ Effects (“died as Prisoner of War, Germany”) shows that his widow received Robert’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £15-10s. 

Robert's loss was not the only devasting blow that his family had to enure as his youngest brother Thomas who enlisted in August 1915 and served in the Highland Light Infantry, was declared Missing in Action at Polygon Wood during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) on 25th September 1917.  He has no known grave and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Ypres.  He was 22 years old. 

(Biographical details courtesy of the Scottish Military Research Group.) 

His father died in 1933, aged 82 

Thomas and Robert are commemorated on the following memorials -  

Dalbeattie Memorial, Dumfries and Galloway 

Dalbeattie Higher Grade Public School, Dalbeattie

Royal British Legion Roll of Honour, Dalbeattie Parish Church

Both brothers are remembered on their parents’ headstone in Dalbeattie Cemetery: 

In Loving Memory of

THOMAS ROBERTSON, THEIR YOUNGEST SON

SERGEANT IN 9TH H.L.I. GLASGOW HIGHLANDERS,

KILLED IN ACTION NEAR POLYGON WOOD,

25TH SEPTEMBER 1917, AGED 22 YEARS.

ALSO ROBERT ROBERTSON, THEIR ELDEST SON,

SERGEANT IN 18TH KING’S LIVERPOOL REGIMENT,

DIED OF WOUNDS WHILE PRISONER OF WAR,

AT CUGNY, FRANCE, 27TH APRIL 1918

AGED 32 YEARS

We currently have no further information on Robert Robertson, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.