Robert William Rhodes was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire on Sunday, 22nd June 1902 the first child of Robert William Rhodes and Alice Stevens. He had an older half-brother Edward James and two younger siblings, Thomas Edwin and Eleanor Fanny. There was another child who died in infancy, whose name is unknown. Robert’s parents both worked at John Dickinson & Co. Limited until Robert was born when his mother left the paper mills to raise, her children. The Rhodes family lived in Nash Mills where the children grew up and had their schooling, although Edward and Robert very briefly went to Two Waters British School in 1909 before returning to Nash Mills after a month. When he finally, left school in 1915 Robert went to work as a “Mill Sawyer”, but did not stay long in this job leaving in October 1918 to join the Royal Navy. He signed on as a “Boy 2nd Class”, a rating for a boy aged fifteen to seventeen who would be sent to a training ship of the Royal Navy. Such entry was conditional on a boy's adequate physical height, weight and medical fitness and evidence of being of 'good character'. The boy's parents or guardians had to sign a declaration that the boy would serve in the navy for a minimum period usually twelve years. Roberts naval records confirm this fact when he signed on in October 1918 with the promise of twelve years service starting in June 1920 by which time he would have completed his initial training and reached the age of eighteen.

He was sent to HMS Ganges and on-shore training establishment at Shotley near Ipswich to begin his naval induction. Sadly however, Robert had been there for only a few weeks when he like so many others contracted “Spanish Flu”, the deadly influenza pandemic raging across the globe. He was immediately admitted to the Naval Sick Quarters at Shotley but within days he had developed complications and was diagnosed with Bronchopneumonia. He was unable to fight the disease and tragically died after only a few more days.

Robert succumbed to his illness on Thursday, 28th November 1918.

His body was returned to Apsley for his funeral shortly afterwards and he was commemorated on the War Memorial plaque in St Mary’s Church, Apsley End.

Robert is Remembered with Honour in the Apsley End (St. Mary) Churchyard, Apsley, England, where he is interred in a Grave South of the Chancel.

He was only 16 years old when he died and is the youngest man commemorated on the Hemel Hempstead town War Memorial, five days younger than Boy 1st Class Thomas Cripps whose biography also appears on this site.