Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War D.S.O. group of four awarded to Captain H. H. Robinson, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached 7th Battalion, Liverpool Regiment, who was among those lost aboard H.M.T. Transylvania when that vessel was torpedoed in the Mediterranean in May 1917

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; 1914-15 Star (Lieut., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Henry Harold Robinson) the first a little chipped in places and with loose centre-pieces, otherwise generally good very fine (5) £1800-2200

D.S.O. London Gazette 25 August 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. After a raid in the enemy’s trenches, he twice crawled out in broad daylight to assist wounded men under fire. They were brought in at night.’

Henry Harold Robinson was educated at Owens College, Manchester and took the diplomas of M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. (Lond.) in 1899. After serving as House Surgeon of Burton-on-Trent Infirmary, as Senior House Surgeon at Southport Infirmary, and as House Surgeon of Birkenhead Children’s Hospital, he went into practice at Birkenhead, where he was Honorary Medical Officer of the Children’s Hospital. He also onetime served as a Ship’s Doctor on a vessel of the Elder-Dempster Line.

Commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Lieutenant in April 1915, he went to France as M.O. to the 8th Battalion, Liverpool Regiment, winning his D.S.O. for his deeds at Wailly on 28 June 1916, a full account of which appeared in the Birkenhead News on 2 September 1916:

‘On 28 June 1916, he was Medical Officer to raiding parties of two Battalions. After attending a wounded man, who had returned, Temporary Captain Robinson went to a point of exit to see if any more wounded men were observable. He noticed two men in the open, and at once went out to their aid, accompanied by Private Currie of the Liverpools, who had been awarded the M.M. At the first attempt they could not reach either of the two men, but made a second effort further down. One of the two men was shot through the head before Captain Robinson and Private Currie reached him.

The other was too badly wounded to be moved at the time, and his would-be rescuers were then only about 50 yards from the German sharpshooters. They, therefore, gave the injured man some morphia and a bottle of water. And about two hours later, at dusk, Captain Robinson and his assistant took the man to the British lines, together with another whom they had observed during the afternoon. One of the two men died, but the other recovered. The Captain was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order on the field of battle some time later by the General Officer Commanding. We are glad to be able to record that Captain Robinson is making very satisfactory progress from the wounds he received in France, and hopes to be all right again very shortly.’

These wounds were very probably received on the Somme, where the 8th Liverpools went into action at Guillemont in August 1916, sustaining around 570 casualties. It is probable, too, that at least one of his two “mentions” from Earl Haig stemmed from the same operations. In 1917 Robinson was ordered to Egypt and was embarked aboard H.M. transport Transylvania at Marseilles on 3 May. A Dictionary of Disasters at Sea takes up the story:

‘The liner Transylvania, Lieutenant S. Brennell, R.N.R., completed just before the outbreak of the First World War, was taken over for service as a transport on completion. She was designed to accomodate 1379 passengers but the Admiralty fixed her capacity at 200 officers and 2680 men, besides the crew. She was carrying nearly this number when she left Marseilles for Alexandria on 3 May 1917, with an escort of two Japanese destroyers, the Matsu and the Sakaki. At 10 a.m. on the 4th, the Transylvania was struck in the port engine room by a torpedo from a submarine.

At the time the ship was on a zig-zag course at a speed of 14 knots, being two and a half miles south of Cape Vado, Gulf of Genoa. She at once headed for the land two miles distant, while the Matsu came along side to take off the troops, the Sakaki meanwhile steaming around to keep the submarine submerged. Twenty minutes later a torpedo was seen coming straight for the destroyer alongside, which saved herself by going astern at full speed. The torpedo then struck the Transylvania and she sank very quickly, less than an hour having elapsed since she was first hit..

Lieutenant Brennell, one other officer and ten men of the crew, 29 military officers [including Robinson] and 373 other ranks were killed.’