| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Harold Robson was born in Cherry Burton the 20 Jul 1895 and baptised at the local parish church on 18 Aug 1895, the son of William Henry Robson and Charlotte Ann (nee Gray), who married in 1893. William was originally from Skipsea and had been a farm worker, specifically an engine driver on a threshing machine but was later a country blacksmith. Harold's mother had been a domestic servant and was originally from Arram. Harold became a farm worker, and in 1911 was a "cow boy" at the Gray Farm, Cherry Burton. His family lived on Market Weighton Road, in the village.
Harold enlisted in Hull at the Central Recruiting Office. He joined a local TA organisation, the 2nd Northumbrian Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. Harold served as a gunner though his photo in the Beverley Guardian in Feb 1916 had a caption stating that he was a "driver". He transferred to regular service and joined the RFA proper in 1916. He had already been in France since 11 Jul 1915 and was to spend the rest of the war there. By the end of the war he was serving in a RFA Trench Mortar Battery. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
After the war he returned initially to Newcastle upon Tyne but then came back to this area in the farming industry. In 1929 he emigrated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to do farm work arranged by the Land Settlement Branch. His transportation documents indicate that after the war he married Mary, and they had three children, Austin, Mary and Lee. The whole family went out to Canada but in 1930, they returned to the UK and then lived at 2 Pasture Terrace, Beverley. In the 1939 Register Harold was working as a farm labourer at Rise Park Farm, Rise Hall, Hull. He died aged 74 in 1969.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |