Edward Robinson VC

Published in Windlesora 28 (2012)

©2012, WLHG

Edward Robinson died in October 1896 at Albert Bridge Lodge and was buried at Old Windsor Cemetery. Over the course of 100 years his headstone became weathered. Four members of the local Royal British Legion decided to raise the money to restore it and HRH Duke of Edinburgh unveiled it.

Edward Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery in March 1858 at Lucknow, India, whilst serving with the Naval Brigade. His was one of 182 VCs awarded in the Indian Mutiny.

Robinson is said to have been born in Portsea, Hampshire on 17 June 1838, although the General Register Office is unable to confirm this, suggesting that the birth may not have been registered. The family later moved to Portsmouth, where Robinson joined the Royal Navy. On 11 August 1852, when he was 14, he enlisted as a Boy Second Class. His first ship was Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, which by then was used for training.

He was transferred to HMS Dido and promoted to Ordinary Seaman on July 1856, when he was 18.

He then joined the crew of HMS Shannon, a newly built warship, at Portsmouth and was promoted to Able Seaman in 1857. Although there is no continuous service record for Edward Robinson, the muster rolls for HMS Shannon contain a lot of personal information. There is a ‘description of person, etc. at the time of entry in this ship‘. Robinson was listed as being five feet five inches tall, with blue eyes, brown hair and a pale complexion. He was also said to be pock-marked, which was not that uncommon at the time.

HMS Shannon was commissioned for service in an expected war with China after that country seized a British vessel. When the situation in China worsened a British fleet, including HMS Shannon, was ordered to sail to Chinese waters, and left England on 17 March 1857. While the fleet was at sea the Indian Mutiny started in Meerut on 10 May 1857 and quickly spread across northern and central India.

News of the mutiny reached HMS Shannon when it arrived at Singapore on 11 June and, after picking up reinforcements, sailed for India, arriving at Calcutta on 7 August. Captain Peel VC and 400 men of the new Shannon Brigade left the ship to fight ashore and HMS Shannon remained anchored there to protect the city.

At the end of October, the Naval Brigade reached Cawnpore and met up with Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell’s column which was ready to march towards the besieged city of Lucknow. The Residency at Lucknow was relieved in November 1857 and while the evacuation was being organized the Naval Brigade kept up a perpetual fire on rebel positions. Campbell then withdrew his force to Cawnpore until he could return with an army large enough to capture the whole city.

The Naval Brigade took part in the final capture of Lucknow four months later, and it was there that Able Seaman Edward Robinson earned his VC. Sir Colin Campbell began his assault on Lucknow on 2 March 1858 but the rebels had strengthened all their defences since November and fought fiercely for every stronghold. On 13 March 1858 the Naval Brigade was inside the city and formed positions which they protected with whatever material was available. The Strand Magazine described the situation in its edition of October 1896.

At sunrise the English opened fire once more, the enemy being on their flank as well as in front. Thousands of mutineers swarmed on the other side of the Goomtee River. The fire was briskly returned, and our gallant fellows began to throw up batteries – of a sort.’These defences consisted of branches of trees, dried grass, straw – anything that would make the dust and sand of the earthworks cohere on either side of the
guns.

The weather was hot; water scarce and difficult to procure. Native carriers, who had manfully stuck by the British, were rapidly being shot down. Soon the defensive works became as dry and inflammable as tarred rope. During the night the water-bearers kept pouring the precious fluid on the heaps, but it simply ran through, only to be licked up later on by the fierce morning sun.

Shell after shell from the sepoy lines came flying into batteries. Suddenly the earthworks blazed up like a furnace, and the guns had to be abandoned.

A pile of shells were stacked next to the British guns when the sandbags caught fire. If the flames had reached the shells there would have been severe casualties and the guns would have been destroyed. There was no time to move the shells to a safer place – the fire had to be extinguished.

When Captain Peel called for volunteers to put out the fire, nineteen-year-old Edward Robinson immediately volunteered. Behind the batteries were several large tubs of water, together with a number of water bags. Robinson picked up several of the water bags and quickly filled them. He then leapt over the small wall which was protecting the Naval Brigade from enemy fire and went back to the burning earthworks. Leaping onto them, in full view of the rebels who were 50 yards away, he began extinguishing the flames. Two engineers, trying to repair the earthworks, were shot down at Robinson’s side.

When the water bags were emptied, he went back for more water and succeeded in pouring gallons of water on the burning sandbags. He made five attempts to put out the flames and threw clear other sandbags.

Robinson was under enemy musket fire every time he went out to the earthworks, but on the fifth occasion, he was shot and seriously wounded. A musket ball passed through his shoulder, shattering his collarbone and disabling him for life. He was also said to have been struck in the right arm and the neck before collapsing unconscious into a trench. He was pulled to safety by other members of the Naval Brigade.

The last of the mutineers were cleared from Lucknow on 21 March. Captain Peel VC had been knighted and instructed to return to England to become ADC to Queen Victoria, but died of smallpox in Cawnpore on the way home in April 1858.

HMS Shannon departed for England in September. On his return, Edward Robinson spent some time in a military hospital. He never saw active service again and was discharged from the Royal Navy, with effect from 10 September 1858, because of his disability. Later reports mention that he was invalided on the ‘two shilling pension list’.

Edward Robinson’s VC, which had been recommended by Captain Peel VC, was announced in The London Gazette on Friday, 24 December 1858. The citation read:

‘For conspicuous bravery, in having at Lucknow, on the 13th of March 1858, under a heavy musketry fire, within fifty yards, jumped on the sandbags of a battery and extinguished a fire among them. He was dangerously wounded in performing this service.’

Robinson received his VC from Queen Victoria in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle on Wednesday, 4 January 1860. In addition to the VC, Robinson received the Indian Mutiny Medal with clasps for Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow.

After reluctantly leaving the Royal Navy with only six years of service, Robinson spent ten years, 1858 – 1868, in the Coastguard Service and then worked for at least ten years in the Naval Reserve Office in London. The 1881 census listed the family address as 28 Spring Gardens, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

Robinson married Ann Goldsack at Dover in September 1863, and they had eight children – five sons (Edward, Thomas, Alfred, Walter and Archibald) and three daughters (Annie, Matilda and Florence).

Queen Victoria always took an interest in her heroes who wore the decoration named after her and through the close contact of her second son, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, Robinson was found employment within the grounds of Windsor Castle. He was appointed gatekeeper of the Albert Bridge, at the Old Windsor entrance to the Home Park on 25 March 1893. (He was at one time thought to have been employed as a gardener in Windsor Castle, but this was a false assumption based on the number of gardeners who attended his funeral.) The gatekeeper’s job (a Royal Gardens position) brought with it a house and a small garden, and the Robinson family moved into the Albert Bridge Lodge. Queen Victoria often rode round the Park in her carriage, preceded by two outriders, and frequently stopped in order to talk to tenants, particularly those wounded in battle whilst in her service. She often spoke to Robinson, who always wore his VC pinned to his uniform when on duty. Sadly, his final appointment did not last long.

Edward Robinson VC died of carcinoma of the oesophagus (throat Cancer), after an illness lasting three years, on Friday, 2 October 1896. He died at the Albert Bridge Lodge and was buried in Old Windsor Cemetery on 8 October. His headstone (as well as his death certificate) shows his age as 57, although he was actually 58. Another researcher has traced a birth certificate showing Robinson’s date of birth as 21 December 1838. It has not been confirmed that this relates to the same man, but if correct, Edward Robinson would have been 57 when he died.

The funeral was a simple affair; his coffin was borne from Albert Bridge Lodge to Old Windsor Cemetery by employees from the Royal Gardens. The Vicar of Old Windsor conducted the funeral service, and among those present were the Queen’s gardener and Robinson’s five sons. There were no representatives from the Royal Family or the Royal Navy at the funeral. (His youngest daughter, Florence, who died in May 1941, was later buried in the grave with him.) The Windsor & Eton Express noted in its obituary of Robinson that he “had a bright, plucky and cheerful disposition, which never left him, and he was greatly respected and admired by all who knew him“.

The weather-beaten headstone that needed to be replaced

After Robinson’s death, his VC group passed to a Mrs Margaret Finnis of Margaret’s Bay, Kent and they were sold at auction in November 1900 for £105. They were sold again, at Debenham’s, in 1951 and bought by Spink & Son for £150 on behalf of a private collector. The same anonymous collector sold the VC group at auction at Glendining’s on 22 October 1970. It was purchased for £3,500, £1,500 above the then record price for a VC, by Mr John Bartholomew, a property developer who wanted to prevent the VC going abroad. Mr Bartholomew placed the VC group on permanent loan to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where Sir William Peel’s VC is also

Over the course of a century, Edward Robinson’s headstone in Old Windsor Cemetery weathered very badly and the inscription became almost unreadable. The reference to his daughter Florence had been obliterated by rainwater.

It was only through the efforts of four members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion that Robinson is no longer a forgotten hero. Having discovered the dreadful state of the headstone, they decided to refurbish it and set about raising funds. Their efforts were rewarded when the Prince Philip Memorial Trust offered to pay the cost of approximately £1,200.

The front of the headstone was replaced with Welsh slate and this was unveiled by HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, on 15 May 2000. (This was very appropriate as it was a previous Duke of Edinburgh who had found Robinson employment in Windsor Castle.) On arrival, the Duke of Edinburgh proceeded to the Chapel to meet Edward Robinson’s relatives and sign the visitors’ book. He was then escorted to the grave and, after a few words, unveiled the reconditioned gravestone. It was then dedicated by the Vicar of Old Windsor. The ceremony was attended by many members of the Robinson family, including Mrs Daphne Read, the widow of one of his grandsons.