CORPORAL MS/3038, ARTHUR JOHN ROBINS, ARMY SERVICE CORPS. DIED 29TH APRIL 1915.



In August 1914, 36 year old Arthur John Robins presented himself at a recruiting office in London and joined the Army Service Corps.
Arthur had two skills which were in high demand in an army that still relied on horse drawn transport, he was both a farrier and a blacksmith. Within just a few weeks he was promoted to the rank of corporal and sent to the Western Front where farrier/blacksmiths where at a premium. His posting was to the Meerut Division of the Indian Army Corps, where under normal circumstances, far behind the lines, he should have been safe. Yet on the evening of the 20th April 1915 he was found writhing in agony and barely alive. Rushed to hospital in great pain, his life ebbed away and he died on 29th of April. A board of enquiry, called to investigate Arthur's death, concluded, that he had somehow ingested the poison strychnine.
Arthur's wife, Emily was living with her mother at 4 Wharfe View Road when she was informed of her husbands death. Arthur Robins was born in St Neots, Cambridgeshire in 1878. he had a somewhat nomadic existence until he married Emily Dawson in York. Arthurs skills took him to the racing stables near to Ascot Racecourse. In a tiny house near to the racecourse his two children where born.
Farrier Corporal Arthur James Robins is buried at Caberet Rouge British Cemetery and is remembered on Ilkley War memorial


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