| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Robert was born the 30 Dec 1883 in Beverley and baptised at Beverley Minster the 6 Feb 1884, the son of Robert Lowson Wilson and Frances (nee Grice). His father was a farmer, milk seller and corn miller; the family lived at, and owned, Lowson’s Mill on Westwood (near Beverley Grammar School). Robert junior attended St Mary’s Boy’s School and became a solicitor’s law clerk, at the time war broke out he was working at Crust, Todd and Mills and Sons solicitors, 34 Lairgate, Beverley. He married Kate Rial, on 28 Apr 1909 at Holy Trinity, Hull. They lived in Cottingham, moving to Beverley and living at 47 Grayburn Lane, they had one son, Robert born the 30 Sep 1909.
Robert attested for military service on 15 Nov 1915 and was mobilised on 24 May1916 at Coventry where he attended the Motor Machine Gun Training centre. He later joined the Royal Tank Corps and served in the 6th and 18th Battalions as a machine gunner in a tank. He was hospitalised with trench fever in Dec 1917 before returning home on leave in Feb 1918. On 21 Sep 1918 whilst en route for France from a training camp in the UK he went missing and was not found until 19 Oct 1918. Charged with desertion he was court-martialled and was given one year’s imprisonment in a military prison with 60 days remission of his sentence. After his demobilization he was able to get a comfortable job as a civil servant in the County Court Department.
Robert lived in Bridlington and Flamborough. He and Kate, divorced and he married Nora Hetherington in Hull in 1938. They had two children. Robert died on Christmas Eve 1965 aged 81.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |