Ernest Henry Robbins was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire in 1882 the seventh child of George Robbins and Ruth Sinfield who had a total of eight children together. The children were Elizabeth, Caroline Louisa, Clara, Hannah, Sarah Jane, Levi, Ernest Henry and George. Ernest’s mother Ruth died in 1901 aged fifty-seven, his father George in 1913 aged seventy-one. Ernest’s father George was a an “Agricultural Labourer and Shepherd”, whilst his mother Ruth was a “Straw Plaiter”. When Ernest was born, his family lived on Billington Road in Leighton Buzzard but by 1891 George and Ruth had moved to Leavesden, Hertfordshire and lived on Gammons Farm Lane and all the children except Ernest and his younger brother George had left home. By the time of the next Census in 1901 the family lived at “Shaffords” or “Boggy Bottom” in Nash Mills near Apsley, where only Ernest and his sister Caroline were at home with their widowed father.

When Ernest had left school in 1895, he had gone straight to work in Nash Mills for John Dickinson & Co., Ltd., as a “Paper Maker’s Assistant” and by the time war broke out in 1914 he had completed is apprenticeship and was a fully-fledged “Paper Maker.” He volunteered a month after War broke out in September 1914 when he went to Watford to attest, joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, and was posted for training. He was promoted during this period and became a full Sergeant in 1915 before he was posted to the 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment which was preparing to transfer overseas. Ernest sailed with his new battalion in October 1915 and landed in Egypt in November before moving to Salonika on the 1st December.

He spent the next two-and-a-half years in the Struma valley fighting in the Salonika campaign. Between 1915 and 1918, British troops were part of a multi-national Allied force fighting against the Bulgarians and their allies in the Balkans. Although disease and the harsh conditions took a heavy toll, they eventually brought the campaign to a successful conclusion. Ernest was again promoted Sergeant during his time in Greece and when the 12th (West Somerset Yeomanry) Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry was formed at Ismailia in Egypt in January 1917, he was transferred to this new unit. The 12th Somersets came under orders of the 229th Brigade in the 74th (Yeomanry) Division and on the 30 April 1918 it embarked at Alexandria for Marseilles, landing there on the 7th May.

In July 1918 the 12th Somersets went into the line for the first time and for the last ten days of the month performed repeated reconnaissance patrols to ascertain enemy positions and strength. On the 8th August the battalion relived the 16th Devonshire Yeomanry in the front line and over the next two days fought to gain objectives held by the Germans. Relieved on the 10th the battalion set to work consolidating the reserve positions and it was during this time that Ernest fell. The reserve trenches were not out of reach of enemy shells or sniping and the Battalion War Diaries recorded casualties on most days when work was in progress. On the 12th it says: ”Working party of 1 Off and 50 OR at P23D 8’4. Casualties killed 5 O.R. wounded 4 O.R.”

Sadly, Ernest was one of the men killed and he died on Monday, 12th August 1918.

Shortly after his death a report appeared in the Hemel Gazette with sympathy and compliments from his platoon Captain and Corporal.

Ernest was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co., Limited war Memorial and on the War Memorial Plaque in St. Mary’s Church, Apsley End.

He is Remembered with Honour in the St. Venant-Robecq Road British Cemetery, Robecq, France, where he is interred in Grave IV. B. 18.

The inscription on his headstone, requested by his brother Levi, reads: “HE FOUGHT THE FIGHT THE VICTORY WON AND ENTERED INTO REST.”

He was 36 years old when he died.

Ernest was eligible for the British War Medal or the Allied Victory Medal.