110267, Farrier Staff Sergeant, Robert Robertson
The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry

Robert Robertson, was the son of Thomas Kennedy Robertson and his wife, Sarah Ann (nee Dixon) who were married in Oldham in 1883.

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	On the 1891 census, Robert is their third child and age 2years. His elder sisters, were Annie (6yrs) and Sarah M (4 yrs). All, except Thomas, were born in Oldham. Thomas (age 33 and born in Scotland) was a Farrier, Smith. The family was living at 46 Park Road, Oldham.
	By 1901, Thomas has been widowed and the family are living at 2, Burton Street, Oldham. Thomas is a Farrier and now also an 'employer'. with him are 16 year old Annie, Robert age 12 and daughter Isabella age 8 (she had been born in Southport)
	In 1911 the family are living at 23 Park Street, Oldham. thomas, now age 53 is a 'master horse shoeing smith' and an employer. We now learn that he was born in Kinross. Annie (26) is at home, Robert (22) is a 'shoeing smith' and Isabella (17) is a 'student teacher'.

Robert's medal index card show that he first served 'in a theatre of war', in his case Egypt, on 5th November 1914. He was a Farrier Staff-Sergeant, serving with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry, which was a Territorial Regiment. This early date indicates that Robert was probably already in the Territorial force before the war broke out.

We know, from the website 'LongLongTrail' that the Regimental headquarter and 'C' Squadron were based in Whalley Range, 'A' Squadron in Oldham, 'B' in Bolton and 'D' in Blackpool. It seems safe to assume that Robert was in 'A' Squadron. The Regiment was under the command of the Welsh Border mounted Brigade. Once mobilised, when war broke out, 'A' Squadron was sent to join the East Lancashire division, and went to Egypt in September 1914. In January 1917 it transferred to the 53rd (Welsh) division and in August 1917 joined the XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment and remained with them in Palestine until the end of the war.

From informations sent by Robert's grandson, we can read ...

"Grandy told me he 'met' Lawrence of Arabia in Cairo, but by 'met' he meant Lawrence came down the steps of HQ, Egypt, just as Grandy was passing in a group of soldiers who all rushed over to shake the great man's hand ...
He also told me he climbed up the Great Pyramid – a likely tale, since he wasn't tall and the blocks of that pyramid are huge!

He told me his CO, Major Bibby, went down with a troop ship torpedoed on her way home from Palestine, while trying to persuade the Captain to get into a life-boat. I guess by his CO, he meant of Oldham Troop, rather than the regiment.
Mum told me most of the DLoY officers were from shipping families, certainly Major Bibby, and that between them they owned half the merchant ships in England. I assume the "half" was poetic licence."

Grandy, oddly with no stripes on his sleeve, riding Major Bibby's much-admired charger.

"At some stage the regiment was horrified to be transformed from cavalry, fighting with sabres on horse-back, into mounted infantry using their horses for transport only, and fighting with rifles or carbines on foot. Despite their shame that made little difference in fact. Grandy said the closest he came to real action in the whole war was when, while trekking along a mountain path someone on the other side of the valley fired a shot which lodged in the heel of his boot.
By contrast, he told me DLoY men practiced their marksmanship shooting not at standard targets, but at the crease in a piece of folded paper.

At one point, apparently, a more senior visitor wanted to put a man on a charge for wearing a white instead of the regulation khaki shirt; Grandy begged Bibby to let him parade the men in novel fashion, lined them up by shade of sun-bleached shirt and got Bibby to ask the visitor where the dividing line came between khaki and white. 'nuff said.

Another time our heroes were crossing a river on horseback when a Brigadier General rode up and interfered, causing chaos. After arguing about it for a while, Bibby allegedly said "Sir, you're a General and I'm a Major so I have to show you due respect. Now f*** off!"

When all those years of slogging in Palestinian dust ended, Grandy was walking the last few hundred yards home, with his kit-bag on his shoulder and, since it was a hot day, with his thick wool serge great-coat unbuttoned, he was accosted by a very junior red-cap; a military policeman, who ordered him to either remove or button his coat, or face a charge of being improperly dressed – and you thought jobsworths were a modern problem?"

In addition to medals shown on his medal rolls index card (above), which were the 'Victory Medal', the 'British War Medal' and the '15 Star Medal', 11026, Farrier Staff-Sergeant Robert Robertson, was awarded a Territorial Efficiency Medal in October 1919.

Robert married Hilda Agnes Pollard (sister of Gilbert Pollard) in Hayfield, Derbyshire, in the first quarter of 1919. The photograph at the top of the page was taken at Christmas 1916, just weeks after Hilda's brother, Gilbert, had been reported missing in action.

Robert's grandaughter, Clair, tells us that ...

"Our mother told me that our grandparents met when Grandy was home on leave. He was walking home from the station on a dark night and saw a woman sitting at the Post Office window, in Oldham. It was the only window lit up in the darkness and the Post Office clerk looked so normal and homely, after what he'd seen in the war, that he fell in love with her. they were married when the war ended."

The 1911 census recorded her working as 'a clerk in the post office', presumably in New Mills where she was living with her family. How did she come to be in Oldham? We can only guess ... perhaps she asked for a transfer for some personal reason or, perhaps, she was transferred to Oldham because of manpower shortages.

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Photos & information contributed by : Clair Figes and Robbie Goodwin