BORN HULL 1894. PERCIVAL BOWMAN PALMER ROBINSON. ONLY SON OF GEORGE ROBINSON (1865-1927) & MARION PALMER (1867-1953).
SON OF A COUNCIL SCHOOL MASTER. HE HAD ONE SISTER, GLADYS.
HE WAS EDUCATED AT HYMERS COLLEGE, HULL WORKED FOR RECKITT’S AS A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT IN THE BLUE STARCH DIVISION (1911 CENSUS). HE JOINED RECKITTS, ON 10/11/1910.
HE ENLISTED AS A PRIVATE. IN THE ST KOYLI. PROMOTED ACTING CORPORAL AND COMMISSIONED ON 30/09/1915.
SERVED AS SECOND LIEUTENANT, IN THE 8TH KING’S OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY. KILLED AT OLLIVERS, ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, 1ST JULY 1916, AGED 23. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE THIEPVAL MENORIAL TO THE MISSING. LISTED ON THE HYMERS COLLEGE WW1 MEMORIAL, HULL.
Notes: 1,512 K.O.Y.L.I. soldiers—89 officers and 1423 other ranks—were killed, wounded or reported missing on the first day.
“half past seven, Mr Morris pulled out his revolver, blew his whistle and said ‘Over!’ And as he said it, a bullet hit him straight between the eyes, and killed him. I went over with all the other boys. The Germans…– there were supposed to be no Germans at all in their front line; we’d annihilated them according to the theory.. fired at these breaches in the wire. And of course they just mowed us down. It seemed to me eventually I was just one man left.”
Donald Murray, 8th Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. His battalion attacked the village of Ovillers on 1 July 1916 (Interviewed 1973)
