Robson, Lance Corporal Clarence

Service highlights

  • Service number: 727745
  • Rank: Lance Corporal
  • Home ties: Lived in St. Marys, Ontario, likely on Salina Street, and worked as a butcher before enlistment
  • Birth (records differ): Born 11 July at Lakeside, Ontario, his year reported as 1897 in service records, 1898 in the 1901 census, and 1899 in the postwar cemetery register. He was likely underage when he enlisted
  • Enlisted: 3 April 1916 at St. Marys with the 110th (Perth) Battalion
  • Reinforcement moves: After the 110th was broken up on 1 January 1917, he was absorbed into the 8th Reserve Battalion. Identified as underage, he was transferred to the 5th Reserve Battalion
  • Posted: 27 June 1917 transferred to the 38th Battalion, serving near Vimy Ridge
  • Injury and return: Injured his left wrist on 28 June 1918 (likely during sports), evacuated to 32 Stationary Hospital, returned to his battalion on 28 August 1918
  • Promotion: Appointed Lance Corporal on 1 September 1918 after heavy NCO losses
  • Died: 29 September 1918
  • Burial and inscription: Buried at Bourlon Wood Cemetery. His headstone bears the words, “Beloved son of Walter and Esther Robson, St. Marys, Ontario.” He is also named on the family stone in the St. Marys Cemetery
  • Commemoration: Remembered on the cenotaph in St. Marys

A Life and Service Remembered

Clarence Wilfred Robson’s story begins with a small but telling detail: even his birth year is recorded differently across official and family sources. What stays consistent is the picture of a young man who was likely not yet of age, working as a butcher and living at home in St. Marys, who still stepped forward to enlist.

He trained in Ontario, sailed overseas with his battalion on the SS Caronia, and then found himself caught up in the churn of reinforcements and reserve units. When his age appears to have been questioned, his posting shifted, but it did not pull him out of danger for long. By the summer of 1917 he was serving with the 38th Battalion near Vimy, moving through the hard routine of front line tours, battles, and the long months where a soldier’s life could change in a moment.

In the final weeks of the war, with casualties thinning the ranks of experienced men, he was made a Lance Corporal. Not long after, in the fighting near Cambrai, he was killed instantly by sniper fire while advancing with his Lewis gun. His parents’ words on his headstone, simple and direct, keep the focus where it belongs: a son lost, and a place that never forgot him.

Major battles and operations

  • Service near Vimy Ridge after joining the 38th Battalion in June 1917
  • Battles of Lens, Avion, and La Couiette in the summer of 1917
  • Passchendaele in October and November 1917
  • Routine trench tours in the Vimy sector through early 1918, after returning from leave
  • Latter part of the Battle of Arras and the capture of the Drocourt-Quéant Line in 1918
  • Opening phases of the Battle of Cambrai in late September 1918, including the attack on the Hindenburg Line between Tilloy and Sancourt across the Cambrai Douai road, where he was killed

Learn More

The Fallen (Richard Holt), page 60 (your scan)

Veterans Affairs Canada, Canadian Virtual War Memorial:
https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/617760
38th Battalion blog:
https://38thbattalion.blogspot.com/2011/
Canadian Great War Project:
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=38675
Library and Archives Canada, service file (B8404-S051):
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B8404-S051
Cambrai, 1918
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/battle-honours-honorary-distinctions/cambrai-1918.html
The Fallen by Richard Holt, 727745 Lance Corporal C.W. Robson, pg 60