Service highlights

• Service number: 199285
• Also recorded as: Albert Parker Robinson
• Born: 10 August 1879, St. Marys
• Occupation: conductor with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, based in Sioux Lookout
• Enlisted: 10 April 1916 at Sioux Lookout with the 94th Canadian Infantry Battalion
• Training and postings: 32nd Reserve Battalion in England, then Canadian General Base Depot at Le Havre (21 August 1916)
• Joined: 46th Canadian Infantry Battalion, serving with the 4th Canadian Division in the Ypres Salient
• Somme service: arrived 3 October 1916, fought through the next seven weeks
• Vimy Ridge: assault battalion on 9 April 1917, later committed again on 12 April in the attack on the Pimple
• Died: 13 April 1917,
• Burial: Berlin Communal Cemetery Extension, France
• Commemorated: The cenotaph in St. Marys

A Life and Service Remembered

Bert Parker Robinson was born in St. Marys in the summer of 1879. By the time he enlisted, he had built a working life far from home, serving as a railway conductor based in Sioux Lookout. That job meant responsibility, schedules, and long distances, the kind of steady competence that communities quietly rely on.

In April 1916, at 36 years old, he enlisted with the 94th Battalion. His training in Canada was brief, and by late June he was crossing the Atlantic on the Olympic. The army’s system carried him through reserve training in England, then on to France, where he spent time at the base depot in Le Havre before joining the 46th Battalion in the Ypres Salient.

In early October 1916, he reached the Somme. For seven weeks, his battalion took part in a grinding sequence of attacks that gained ground at a heavy cost. One detail from that period says a lot about the strain they were under: on 22 October, orders were reportedly written on the reverse side of a soldier’s will form because there was not enough paper. It is a stark picture of a modern army stretched thin by constant fighting.

In April 1917, the 46th was one of the assault battalions at Vimy Ridge. The first day went well at the start, then conditions turned. The wind dispersed the smoke and left men exposed, and the final objective remained out of reach. Three days later, the 46th was called forward again to attack the Pimple in a driving snowstorm under heavy bombardment. In that fighting, Bert was wounded. He was evacuated to a casualty clearing station, where he died on 13 April 1917.

He was buried in France, far from the rail lines and towns he knew, and far from the St. Marys streets where he began. The words chosen for his headstone, selected by his mother, carry a simple weight: greater love has no man than this. It is a line that still feels personal because it came from someone who had already lost a husband, and now had to live with the loss of her son.

Major battles and operations

• Ypres Salient service with the 46th Battalion, 4th Canadian Division
• The Somme, October to November 1916
• Vimy Ridge, 9 April 1917
• Attack on the Pimple, 12 April 1917, where he was wounded
• Died of wounds 13 April 1917 at 6th Casualty Clearing Station

Learn More

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/470454/bert-parker-robinson/
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/6087459
https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/602317
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=28974
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B8378-S027
The Fallen, by Richard Holt 199285 Private B.P. Robinson pg 59