Walthamstow-born Eric was brought up in Metropolitan Essex, worked as a gardener's noy before joining the Royal Navy. Eric was killed along with over 700 other men when H.M.S. Hampshire struck a mine in June 1916. His brother William was killed in action the following year while serving in the army in France. His mother was a Widford resident at the end of the war..
ROBINSON, Eric Frances Henry*
Ordinary Seaman, H.M.S. Hampshire, Royal Navy, aged 17
Eric Francis Henry Robertson was born on 2nd July 1898 in Walthamstow, the third of ten known children of William Hansell Robinson (1867-1911) and Kate Elia Theobald (1872-1952). His parents had married in 1892.
Eric’s siblings were Elsie Kate Robinson (born 24th July 1893 to 28th May 1958), Jessie Frances Robinson (3rd December 1894 to 1954), William Hansell Robinson (1896 to 25th November 1917), Clifford Arthur George Robinson (born 23rd April 1900 to 5th June 1986), Ivy Irene Robinson (born 16th October 1903 to 11th July 1986), Maisie Violet Robinson (17th February 1905 to 1943), Lawrence Victor Robinson (8th June 1906 to 18th June 1973), Leslie Robinson (born 1908), Gladys Irene D. Robinson (born 8th May 1910 to 1999), and Phyllis Robinson (11th August 1911 to 2009).
By 1900 Eric’s family was living in Chingford.
In 1901 the census found two year-old Eric living with his parents and three siblings at 255 Marks Road in Romford. At the time his father was a 36 year-old house painter.
Three years later the family was resident at Noak Hill, Romford.
In 1911 12 year-old Eric was living with his parents and seven siblings at Paternoster Row, Romford. . Eric was at school as were his siblings apart from their 14 year-old brother William who was a cowman on a farm. Their father was a painter.
Sadly Eric’s father was to die later that year, aged 43. He was buried at St. Thomas’s Church in Noak Hill on 17th July 1911.
By 1913 Eric’s mother was living in Widford, presumably with her children.
On 2nd July 1914, having worked as a gardener’s boy, Eric joined the Royal Navy on a 12-year engagement, serving as Boy First Class J/34709. At the time he signed-up he was five feet one inch tall, with brown hair and eyes and a fresh complexion. He had a scar between his eyebrows. After serving on HMS Impregnable as Boy II from 12th February 1915, on HMS Victory as Boy I from 3rd April 1915, and on HMS Hampshire as Ordinary Seaman from 30th May 1915.
On 23rd November 1915 Eric’s mother remarried, to Edwin Andrew Harris, at Chelmsford Register Office. The couple had a daughter Elfreda Maud Harris (25th October 1913 to 1935).
Eric was killed, aged 17, on 5th June 1916 when his ship, HMS Hampshire struck a mine off the Orkneys and sunk with the loss of 737 of the 749 on board the vessel. Among the dead was Field Marshall Lord Kitchener.
Eric has no known grave and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
At the time of his death Eric’s mother was resident at 5 Spains Croft, Widford.
Eric's brother, William, also lost jos life during the war
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