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Edwin Robinson was born in Ossett in July 1915, the son of Flushdyke miner George Robinson and his wife Emma Hemingway, who married in Ossett on the 27th December 1913. Edwin Robinson married Gladys Horner in Ossett in early 1937 and they had a son, Keith Robinson, also in 1937, born in the Keighley area.
The “Ossett Observer” 1 had this report about the award of the Military Medal to Lance-Bombardier Edwin Horner in 1945:
“A Military Medal For An Ossett Soldier – An Ossett man, Lance-Bombardier Edwin Robinson (30), whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Robinson, reside at 9, South View Terrace, Flushdyke, Ossett, and whose wife lives at Northampton, has been awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field in Germany. The news comes from his wife who is the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Horner, 14, Naylor Street, Ossett. She writes that her husband received the award on his sister Kitty’s wedding day, but he gives no details of the deed which merited it. His mother, however, believes that Edwin earned his medal in a recent fight, where, he writes, he captured eight Germans, including one officer.
Lance Bombardier Robinson has been a soldier for four years, and abroad for ten months, having fought in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He was educated at Flushdyke Council School, and was employed from the age of 14 to 21 years by Messrs. John Palmerley and Son, Ossett. When 21, he went to work for John Hawkins and Son, by whom he was employed at the time he joined the Army.
As a boy, he was a member of the Church Lads Brigade at Holy Trinity. He was a bugler in the latter movement, and has on several occasions sounded the ‘Last Post’ at the Ossett Cenotaph on Armistice Day parades. He was a keen all-round sportsman, being a good swimmer and playing locally at football and cricket. He has one sone aged eight years.
Since the foregoing, a further letter has been received by Robinson’s parents, in which he states that the award of the M.M. is for devotion to duty on the 14th April 1945. He doesn’t know when he will receive his medal , as, to use his own words, he must wait for some ‘big pot’ to present him with it. His main regret is that he is not in England, in which case, of course, the medal would be presented by the King. In this latest letter, Robinson writes that the night after the award became known he was the hero of the regiment, and that his colonel and major both shook him by the hand. Although he still does not say anything about the deed which won the medal, he reveals that the officer he was with at the time was awarded the M.C. and that they both drank a toast in whisky. A driver and wireless operator are still missing from the foray.”1
References:
1. “Ossett Observer”, Saturday, May 5th 1945.
