ROBINSON, William

William’s birth to John and Martha Robinson was registered at Inverell in 1893. The family lived at Gum Flat west of Inverell NSW.  At the age of twenty two, William enlisted at Inverell shortly before he joined the volunteers known as the First Contingent of The Kurrajongs.  Included with these men was William’s cousin, James Lennard. They left Inverell together on 12 January 1916 and travelled by train to the Narrabri and then the Armidale camps.

He became a member of the 33rd Battalion, 1st Reinforcement and after training at Armidale and Rutherford, sailed from Australia on HMAT A74 Marathon in May 1916.  After nine weeks at sea, he arrived in England where further training was undertaken at Salisbury Plain. A month before the Battalion was sent to France William was promoted to Corporal.  By May 1917 he was ill with chronic pleurisy and invalided to hospital in England.  The decision was then made to return him to Australia for Home Service. William arrived home in July 1917 and was granted a pension of sixty shillings per fortnight from October. He died at Armidale in 1932.

Corporal William Robinson is remembered at Inverell where his name is inscribed on the town’s Honor Roll and on the Honor Roll at the Beaulieu Hall.