Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/07/1915

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

07/08/1894

Place of Birth

Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Eliza Robertson (mother), Bradshaws Creek, Victoria

Burial Place

Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium plot 67, row F, grave 12

Final Rank

Captain

Final Unit

31 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action) on 20 July 1916, Fromelles, France aged 21 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 119, Canberra ACT

Robertson entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 9 March 1913 in the third intake of cadets. He graduated on 28 June 1915 and enlisted shortly after as a Lieutenant in the 31st Battalion. Robertson embarked with his Battalion in November 1915 and is shown in the AWM image with a group of officers aboard the HMAT Wandilla during the voyage. In February 1916 he was promoted to Captain in D Company in the 31st Battalion and in June 1916 they arrived in France.

Robinson, a lecturer at RMC before the war and a fellow officer in the 8th Brigade, describes him as speaking with pride of D Company. "D Company thought they did not need any training. Robertson bet them they could not make their way through a small wood and thicket near-by, and come out on the far side in anything like a fighting line. D Company took up the bet. After that training was easy!"

Robertson was killed in action during the Battle of Fromelles in northern France. On 19 July 1916 the 5th Division of the AIF (which included the 31st Battalion) launched an attack on German positions on Auber Ridge near the village of Fromelles. According to an eyewitness, Robertson was "hit by a bullet and just said 'Oh' and dropped dead". According to Bean Robertson was in the 31st Battalion attack near Delangre Farm during the Battle of Fromelles when he was mortally wounded while crossing No Man's Land. His body was recovered after the war and re-interred in Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passchendaele, Belgium.

Description - height 5 feet 10 inches, weight 185 pounds, chest 40 inches, Church of Christ.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. III, p. 374)
The Duntroon Society, 'The Dead of Duntroon' by Frederick Robinson, Newsletter 1/2008
AWM Collections Record : A003377
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Hell Opened at Fromelles', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial