Published in Windlesora 33 (2016)
© WLHG 2018
On January 4th 1860, at Windsor Castle, twenty-one-year-old Able Seaman Edward Robinson, Royal Navy, was invested with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria. He was born in June 1838 in Portsea, and joined the Royal Navy at the age of fourteen. Records show that he served on ships such as HMS Victory (1852 – 1853) and HMS Dido (1853 – 1856).
Edward won his VC two years previously, at the age of nineteen, as part of the Naval Brigade at the siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, aiding the evacuation of women and children from the Residency. Sandbags on the earthworks where he and his gun crew were sited were on fire. The enemy was within fifty yards, laying down heavy musket fire, yet Edward jumped onto the top of the earthworks, put out some of the fires and threw the remaining burning sandbags clear before being seriously wounded in the shoulder. He was dragged back to safety by members of his gun crew.
Edward Robinson was invalided from the Royal Navy later in 1858 but served in the Coastguard and Royal Naval Reserve. Queen Victoria reputedly tasked her second son, Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, with keeping in touch with the nation’s heroes. Through his good offices, Edward was employed as a gardener at Windsor Castle and later as Gatekeeper at the entrance to Home Park in Old Windsor. It was there he died in his home, Albert Bridge Lodge, on October 2nd 1896, and was buried in Old Windsor cemetery.
Windsor Local History Group 