BORN HULL 1895. SCULCOATES. SON OF WILLIAM ROBSON (1860-1923) & ELIZA ANN BREWER (1863-1929), OF 62 BRUNSWICK AVENUE, HULL. HE HAD FOUR BROTHERS AND FOUR SISTERS. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS, ON 08/09/1914. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 25/02/1917, AGED 21. BURIED ON THE SOMME. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS FATHER, WILLIAM.
HIS NAME IS LISTED ON HULL’S CLIFTON STREET SCHOOL ROLL OF HONOUR & ON THE TRINITY HOUSE MEMORIAL, HULL.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE PERCY ERNEST ROBSON 11/554. Born in March 1895, Percy was the fifth of nine children to William and Eliza Robson of 62 Brunswick Avenue, Hull. A Joiner’s Labourer before the war, Percy queued at City Hall to join the then fledgling 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. He served in Egypt and on the Somme, and it was here, in the ruins of the French village of Serre, that he was killed in action on 25th February 1917. The battalion had sent patrols out into No Man’s Land responding to information received the day before that the Germans had withdrawn from Serre. They went out at 6am and overran three lines of trenches before being forced back by the German artillery now trained on their old positions and raining down shells. The Pals were in danger of being surrounded as both units on their flanks had failed to take their objectives and had been pushed back to their original positions. They ended the day right back where they started which of course was considered a great success. It was a success which claimed the life of a young Joiner’s Assistant from Hull. Percy is buried at Euston Road Cemetery; he was 21 years old.
