| [Index] |
| Henry Tyneside WATERS ROBERTSON (1896 - 1917) |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
| Henry Tyneside WATERS ROBERTSON (1896 - 1917) | Edward Duncan ROBERTSON (1876 - 1954) | John ROBERTSON (1835 - 1911) | Duncan ROBERTSON | |
| Janet (ROBERTSON) | ||||
| Rebecca GARDINER (1841 - 1934) | Henry GARDINER | |||
| Sarah Jane WATSON | ||||
| Elizabeth Jane WATERS (1874 - 1946) | Thomas WATERS | |||
| Mary Jane DIGGINS | ||||
| b. 1896 at Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia |
| d. 02 Apr 1917 at France aged 21 |
| Cause of Death: |
| Killed in action |
| Parents: |
| Edward Duncan ROBERTSON (1876 - 1954) |
| Elizabeth Jane WATERS (1874 - 1946) |
| Events in Henry Tyneside WATERS ROBERTSON (1896 - 1917)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| 1896 | Henry Tyneside WATERS ROBERTSON was born | Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia | 50215/1913 | 18 | |
| 02 Apr 1917 | 21 | Henry Tyneside WATERS ROBERTSON died | France | 18 | |
| Personal Notes: |
|
Roll of Honour - Harry Robertson
Also known as: Henry Robertson Service Number: 2226 Rank: Private Unit: 55th Australian Infantry Battalion Service: Australian Army Conflict: First World War, 1914-1918 Date of death: 02 April 1917 Place of death: France Cause of death: Killed in action Age at death: 20 Place of association: Queanbeyan, Australia Cemetery or memorial details: Lebucquiere Communal Cemetery Extension, Lebucquiere, Arras, Nord Pas de Calais, France Source: AWM145 Roll of Honour cards, 1914-1918 War, Army http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5595202 Advertiser (Adelaide) 18 Jun 1917 A VILLAGE FIGHT AUSTRALIANS AND GERMANS (From the Australian War Correspondent, Mr. C. E. W. Bean.) British Headquarters, France, April 14, 1917. The fight has been so fast of late that I have had no time until to-day to tell of one of the finest village fights which our men have made against the German rear- guard. This is the early morning attack which the New South Wales troops launched against the German rearguards defending the villages of Louverval and Doignes just north and south of the Cam- brai-road, which is our same old Bapaume- road of the Pozieres days, only another 12 miles on. Louverval was just to the north of the road, and Doignes a little south of it. The attack was made before the dawn. On the Cambrai-road some way before you come to either village is a beetroot factory -one of the factories for making sugar, of which this country- side is full. Every farming district seems to own its sugar factory out in the middle of the farms. This one, like all three about here, has been blown down by the Germans, and they had made dugouts in the bank of a sunken road, which ran in front of it. Some of the New South Welshmen had just moved over the crest of the hill, which opened the factory and villages to them, when rifle and machine- gun fire started. Five minutes later a flare suddenly shot into the air from near the sugar factory. It was at that moment that our scouts reached the place where it was thrown. The next minute a scout was into the man who fired the flare and bayoneted him. Given Away by a Dog. The outbreak of firing was against the most southerly party. Some of them had also been nearing the sugar factory. As they moved through the dark across the paddock, keeping the dark shapes of the trees on their flank, a small dog, rather like a Kelpie, jumped up from the stubble and yapped at them, and then ran off towards the edge of a sunken road, where they could dimly see the heads of men moving. They took it that the men be- hind the bank were their own men over- lapping them. As they neared them the small dog ran up to the strangers, and then turned and growled fiercely at the oncoming troops. A shot was at once fired from the bank. Our troops broke in- to a charge. The figures ahead mostly turned and ran. Some were bayoneted. Others bolted into dugouts and were bombed. Some got clear away across the fields. The sugar factory was taken. To the north of the road in front of Louver- val ran a belt of barbed wire, and to the north of the village and partly around it was its wood, which the Germans had cut down. These held up the attack for a time, and then the fighting became hot. One man caught in the wire near the factory was heard to shout at the flustered Ger- mans, who were blazing at him and his mate, "Go on, you couldn't hit a haystack." The New South Welshmen in the wood took a German machine gun, and turned it against the Germans. Just as they had it set up it was shattered. Another ma- chine gun was troubling them until the whole crew, except a couple, were shot, and those two managed to get clear with the gun. The Germans fought very stub- bornly. The Australians worked through the wood and the village. They were driven out in the afternoon, but the offi- cers on the spot again attacked without waiting for orders, and the northern half of the attack finally went home and stayed. Meanwhile the leading men of the southern party, had forwarded the Germans whom it had driven from the sunken road across the fields towards Doignes. The Germans made a stand behind a hedge in front of the vil- lage. The Australians, as soon as they were near enough, charged, and the Ger- mans ran, only to make a stand behind another hedge and bank of a sunken road near the further end of the village. There were more of them here, and our men paused for a while, others following them who had been held up by the stiff fighting near Louvervale. They could not carry out their intention of enveloping the vil- lage on the south as they had intended. But they moved round and enveloped it on the other flank instead, which proved every bit as useful. The Germans holding the road in front of the first party began to be fired on from the flank. They saw men moving towards their rear, and they bolted. Coffee on the Fire. In the village, when the leading party reached it, the breakfasts were standing ready in the dugouts and the billets. There was tinned meat and a bottle that looked like cognac. The wary party left that cognac alone. The men have learned to mistrust the German and his belongings however innocent they may look. Instead, someone threw a bomb into the place. The next instant the dugout was blown up - fortunately at another entrance. In an- other cellar an officer's breakfast was ready, all laid out and the coffee-pot steam- ing on the fire. The breakfast was finished then and there. As they pushed through the village an Australian private tripped on a wire across the street near the small village bridge. A fountain of water went up from the stream along the bridge as if a mine had exploded there, but the bridge was not broken. Another wire was pulled, and a house, rather better than most, was suddenly blown down. The explosion scattered amongst the brickdust a shower of papers. It was a headquarters. Four or five mines were set off as the troops entered the place, either by trip wires or by the enemy, but as far as I can hear not a man was injured, and they had not the slightest influence on the attack. The Germans had no sooner left these two vil- lages than they made unceasing efforts to win them back. Five times during the day they were seen assembling or advanc- ing to attack. Once or twice an aero- plane spotted them and called up the guns at once and put them on to this target. At other times it was the artillery obser- vers who saw them, at other times the in- fantry. In each case a hail of shrapnel was called down upon them and the attack dwindled. |
| Source References: |
| 18. Type: E-mail Message, Abbr: e-mails general pool, Title: e-mails general pool |
| - Reference = Judith Laws 24 Oct 2014 (Name, Notes) |
| - Notes: Henry (Harry to the family) was born prior to Jane’s marriage. Birth(and Baptism) was registered as Waters. In 1913, his birth was again registered as Henry Robertson with both parents noted. 50215/1913.
ROLL OF HONOUR: Date of death: 2 April 1917 Cause of death: Killed in action Cemetery or memorial details: Lebucquiere Communal Cemetery Extension, France War Grave Register notes: ROBERTSON, Pte. Harry, 2226. 55th Bn. Australian Inf. Killed in action 2nd April, 1917. Age 20. Son of Edward Duncan Robertson and Elizabeth Jane Robertson. Native of Queanbeyan, New South Wales. I. B. 6. |
| - Reference = Judith Laws 24 Oct 2014 (Death) |
| - Reference = Judith Laws 24 Oct 2014 (Birth) |