“Hind has just joined us—also two new officers with a draft.”
From Colonel Richardson, 7th Brigade,
M.E.F., 13th November 1917.
“I must just write you a short line to let you know how your brother, Captain S. O. Robinson, or Bob as we all loved to call him, died. I shall hope later on to send you a more detailed account of the action, but in the meantime an abbreviated account must suffice.
“On November 5th the Cavalry Division was co-operating with the Infantry in the attack on Tekrit, and at 4.45 or thereabouts in the afternoon, I received orders to send a squadron to charge the Turkish trenches on the left of our Infantry. Bob’s squadron, ‘B,’ was the first for duty, and I sent it, and soon afterwards sent ‘C’ Squadron in support; these two squadrons rode up to the Turkish front-line trench, found it evacuated, found the left flank of our Infantry, with a mass of Turks estimated at 3 or 4 hundred retiring in the open to the N.W. or left front. Bob at once, with the instinct of a true soldier, decided to charge these Turks, and proceeded to do so with the two squadrons.
“When they reached the big mass of Turks, a mêlée naturally occurred. Bob was seen taking on four Turks with his sword, and was shot through the head by one of them; he was killed instantaneously (incidentally his trumpeter, Maguire, from whom we gather this description, claims to have shot this particular Turk with his revolver). The squadron went on a couple of hundred yards or so, then turned, and came through the Turks again, and eventually reached our lines in safety. By this time it was dusk, and after dark the Turks retired; next day our Infantry came up, and found several bodies stripped, even of their identity discs, and buried them lightly in the trenches. We had gone back that night to bivouac some miles, but on Tuesday (6th) I sent a small party to go over the ground to ascertain what they could; this party found and identified Bob’s body and that of three others of our men, and next day, the 7th, I went myself with the C. of E. Padre, Lt. Stirling, and 5 men, collected all the bodies, buried them deep, and the Padre read the burial service over them. We could not mark the spot, but we took records of the exact position where they were buried.
“Major Twist is writing, and will see to his effects in the Regiment.
“In offering you all my deepest sympathy in your loss, I should like to add that his loss will be most keenly felt in the Regiment, and by many outside of it. If his brother officers loved him for his kindness and simplicity of character, his men adored him for the same qualities and for his justness, and I personally mourn the loss of a true friend; but he died the death of a gallant soldier fighting sword in hand against superior odds, a death that few Cavalry officers can ever hope to meet—to so few is it given,—an end that will live long in the history of the Regiment, if not in the history of the Army. R.I.P.”
 Sergt. John Gray |  Lieut. D. J. E. Norton, M.C. | |
 Capt. F. Norman Payne | ||
 Sergt. A. S. Newman |  Pte. Wm. Thomson |