Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Major R. D. Robertson, The Gordon Highlanders, wounded and taken prisoner in the retreat from Mons, he was repatriated and went on to serve in Gallipoli and Palestine

1914 Star, with clasp (2 Lieut., Gord. Highrs.); British War and Victory Medals (Major); Defence and War Medals, the bronze awards sometime lightly gilded, contact marks, generally very fine or better (5) £300-350

Robert Dalrymple Robertson was born in July 1891 and was educated at Wellington and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders in October 1911, he was advanced to Lieutenant in September 1914.

Accompanying the 1st Gordons to France on 14 August 1914, he was wounded in the right hand and taken P.O.W. during the retreat from Mons on the 28th of that month. Whilst in prison hospital, however, Robertson elected to deceive his captors by aggravating his wound, thereby raising his hopes of repatriation on the grounds of being unfit for further service. To achieve this, he kept his hand immersed in snow, of which there was plenty, 1914-15 being a particularly severe winter. As a consequence, when he appeared before the Repatriation Board, he was not only able to convince them that his wound was much worse than it really was, but also that he had lost his reason. His subsequent repatriation is verified by P.R.O. sources.

On arriving back in the U.K., Robertson made a complete (and miraculous) recovery, so much so that he served as a Captain at Gallipoli from October 1915 until January 1916. Then in November 1917 he was posted to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Highlanders, the Black Watch, and embarked with them for Palestine. On 18 June 1918 he was present at the action at Arsuf, and on that day he took over as Second-in-Command with the acting rank of Major, a post he held until the end of the War. He was also temporarily in command of the Battalion from 9 June to 20 July 1918.

After the War, Roberston returned to the 1st Gordons and went with them to Turkey, commanding ‘A’ Company during the Battalion’s tour of duty policing the Izmid Peninsula of Anatolia. Then after a spell in Malta he was seconded to the West African Frontier Force from October 1924 until September 1926, thereafter returning to the Regiment.

In September 1928, he became D.A.A.G. at Army H.Q., having in the previous April, for a short time, commanded the Battalion during the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Picton-Warlow on leave, and in December 1929 he assumed command of ‘A’ Company. His last appointment, before retirement, was the command of the Regimental Depot at Castlehill Barracks, Aberdeen, and he finally retired with the rank of Major in 1935. During the Second World War he is believed to have served with the Royal Navy.

The Major, who had represented Scotland on the Rugby Union field just before the Great War, died in December 1971, aged 80 years.