783962 WO Class I (RSM) John ROBERTSON, Royal Corps of Signals: 24/01/1947

Discussion in 'Royal Signals' started by CL1, Jan 24, 2018.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Remembering Today

    Casualty Details | CWGC
    Warrant Officer Class I (R.S.M.) ROBERTSON, JOHN

    Service Number 783962
    Died 24/01/1947
    Royal Corps of Signals
    Commemorated at BROOKWOOD 1939-1945 MEMORIAL
    Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
    Number of casualties: 3417
    Cemetery/memorial reference: Panel 7. Column 3.


    Panel from my photo collection
    upload_2018-1-24_0-17-45.png
     
  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Wonder if this might be him:
    John ( Jack) Robertson
    1915–
    BIRTH 22 MAY 1915 • Leeds, Yorkshire, England
    DEATH Leeds, Yorkshire, England

    or this one:
    John D Robertson
    1914–
    BIRTH 1914 • Scarborough, Yorkshire
    DEATH Unknown

    but then there is this:
    England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
    Name: John Robertson
    Death Age: 34
    Birth Date: abt 1913
    Registration Date: Mar 1947
    Registration district: Richmond
    Inferred County: Yorkshire North Riding
    Volume: 1b
    Page: 1038

    ????
    TD
     
  3. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    TD - none of the above; he joined the R.A. in 1928.

    RA attestations:
    Robertson01.jpg

    Missing:
    Robertson02.jpg

    Robertson03.jpg
     
    CL1 likes this.
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Thanks Harkness - I was as you can see just guessing.

    What date is the page 33, as he died in 1947, I also note he was an RSM whereas the above is an SSM

    If the RA man is this man then enlisting in 1928 in the Territorials then I guess he would have been born 1910 +/- 2 years. At that time there seem to be quite a number of John Robertson's born into families in the military (22 in fact from the search results) plus all those others born and registered normally in the PRO/GRO system

    I also note on page 33 that they have the 'Casualty List No', I assume this is the number we would normally see hand written near to the soldiers name ???

    TD
     
    CL1 likes this.
  5. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    Just a general question - but what possibilities could mean that a fatality in January 1947 ends up on a memorial instead of with a burial?

    If his body was not recovered then whatever happened to him must have involved something like a plane crash or a boat sinking.

    Any other obvious scenarios that I am missing??


    During the war there would have been a steady stream of personnel where the bodies could not be recovered / located but things were a lot calmer a year or so after hostilities ceased.

    As surmised above, if he enlisted in 1928 he would have probably only been in his late 30s by 1947 - dying of wounds received during the war or from illness / accident on land would not been an obvious reason for a memorialisation instead of a burial.
     
  6. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    What about clearance of mines, or other explosive materials left over from the war that for safety needed to be disposed of - something goes wrong, then there not much left to bury

    TD
     
  7. harkness

    harkness Well-Known Member

    Robertson.jpg

    Page 33 reports him "no longer missing", so is presumably an event unrelated to his death (which does not appear in the Casualty Lists).
     

Share This Page