[Coquet]

I'm boggle-eyed leafing through the records that have survived for Roberts. His file has been purged, bits destroyed and generally decimated of the good stuff. Lots of pension stuff surviving which is not our top priority in building a picture of the man's service.

This is my go with the fragments of data we have, and a few snippets from elsewhere:


Victor Cyril Roberts was born on the 19th May 1891 in Llandegla, Denbighshire, the son of Mary and John Hooson Roberts, schoolmaster. At the time of his birth his father and oldest brother were in lodgings in Amble, John having taken up a position as schoolmaster of the Church of England school in the town. Sadly Mary was to die a few months after Victor’s birth, Victor and the seven other children previously living with Mary moving to Amble shortly afterwards. John established his family at 33 Queen Street, later moving to Dilston Terrace, the older children over this period gradually leaving school to take up employment locally. By the time of his death in 1908 John Hooson Roberts had become a well-respected member of the community, church choirmaster, and had taught a great many of Amble’s children.

In 1907 Victor gained a 5 year Engine Fitter’s apprenticeship. The following year he enlisted in the local territorial battalion of the county infantry regiment; the 7th battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, attesting on the 22nd August 1908, aged 17 years and 2 months. In 1911 he is working for Broomhill Collieries Ltd. as an electrician, residing at Bede House, Bede Street with several of his siblings.

Although promoted Corporal and then Sergeant in 1913 with the territorials, and having served well over 5 years, Victor decided the 1913 annual camp was to be his last. Increased work demands caused him to request a discharge which was duly granted in June 1914, but as events unfolded in Europe later that summer it became clear war was coming and he decided to return to his battalion, re-enlisting on the 1st August 1914. His attestation at Amble was taken by Lieutenant Vernon Merivale and witnessed by Sergeant Instructor Walter John Casey.

Nine months of training and home defence followed for the men of the battalion, before eventually sailing for France and the western front in the early hours of the 21st of April 1915. Expecting a period of further training and attachment to seasoned units the battalion was surprised to learn they were to advance to the front near Ypres and attack. The battalion’s arrival in France had in fact coincided with a major German offensive using poison gas for the first time. The Germans had released 4000 chlorine gas cylinders across a 3¾ mile length of the front on the north of the Ypres salient centred on Langemarck. The shock of this weapon devastated the allied line and the front was open and the Germans advanced 2½ miles. Between the 23rd and 26th The British made several counter attacks east of Pilkem Ridge towards St Julian in an attempt to regain the lost ground but the efforts came to naught. Many men of the 7th battalion were killed or wounded in this period.

On the 26th April the battalion attacked St. Julien and during this attack Sergeant Roberts became a casualty after being shot in the forearm two inches above the wrist. He was sent to No. 11 General Hospital at Boulogne and on the 30th he was returned to the UK on the Hospital Ship Salta and admitted to the 1st Scottish General Hospital on the 2nd of May. X-rays revealed the bullet had caused a comminuted fracture of the ulna which took 107 days to heal.

Fully recovered, Roberts was nominated for a commission, and in August 1915 after training at Scarborough joined the 23rd Service Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, (4th Tyneside Scottish) as 2nd Lieutenant. In March 1916 he joined the 19th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers and in May was attached to 9 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, with corresponding army transfer to the 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. Roberts is also recorded on attachment to the Intelligence Corps from January to May 1917. Now a Flying Officer Observer, on the 31st July 1917 he received bullet wounds to his left calf and knee while flying over Langemarck in Belgium. During this period 9 Squadron was equipped with RE.8s and was used for Artillery spotting and contact patrols in the opening stages of the battle of Passchendaele.

2.Lt. Roberts was evacuated back to United Kingdom and sent to the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital, Whitchurch, Cardiff. After two operations, months spent on crutches and the assessment of a number of Medical Boards, it became apparent that a full recovery was increasingly unlikely. Being repeatedly graded unfit even for light duties he returned to Amble in 1919, although medical treatment continued with periods in hospital including several months in early 1920 at Wilton Grange Hospital, West Kirby, Cheshire.
Roberts was declared unfit for any further military service in April 1920 and placed on the half pay list, retiring in December 1921 on account of ill health. At this time his leg was very weak and he could not walk more than a couple of hundred yards without considerable pain.

Roberts is recorded living in his sister’s house in Bede Street on the 1926 Electoral Register, and on the 10th July 1930 he married Winifred Bessie Bradfield Earl in Hertfordshire. He died in that county on the 17th June 1959 aged 68. Winifred died in 1984.