142 Pte K W Robson

Padre Matt Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:08 am

My maternal great grandfather.

Joined up on 17th April 1908 - possibly en bloc with mates- [from Durham St Johns Ambulance] - as a Private in 2nd Northumbrian Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C., part of the new 4th Northumbrian Division Territorial Force Very Happy

I only just started researching this side of the family thanks to some almost forgotten info gleaned from my aunt, and came up with the following. They were in the 1st Battle of Ypres in 1915, sadly he had 2 spells in hospital with influenza and then caught the 'new' [at the time] trench nephritis, which accounted for 10% of bed space and 5% of all medical admissions in WW1. It is a kidney related illness and caused over 15,000 soldiers to claim a pension after 1918. He ended up being given a Blighty and had to have almost 2 months in a convalescent hospital in Eastborne before being discharged only fit for Home Service.

As a new illness at the time, it was not met with great success by the medical authorities and hundreds of people died, mainly non-com trench soldiers, mostly treatments were ineffective. Another of my relatives on my fathers side was also sent back to England with the same illness. He recovered and went back to France but died later in the war.

Have found a bunch of docs on ancestry relating to him, so now I shall spend a bit of time finding out about the unit he was in.