He survived six battles.. then fought shell shock
11/11/1918-11/11/2018: 100 years since end of World War 1 Readers share their memories of loved ones who fought…
TO mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, we are telling the heroes’ stories. Rob George, 66, of Llangibby, Monmouthshire, pays tribute to his grandad George Robotham:
My mum always told me not to mention the war in front of my grandfather because it brought out the worst of his shell shock. He lived with us later in his life and used to lock himself away when he couldn’t cope. Listening to opera music somehow helped him.
He was a miner in Pontypool, South Wales, before enlisting in 1914. He joined the 74th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and fought in six major battles – Loos and Neuve Chapelle in 1915, and the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele in 1917. Then the division was called south to back up a tank attack in the First Battle of Cambrai in late 1917.
They marched hundreds of miles through many nights, often soaked to the skin, to each battleground. Cambrai was the first time Britain effectively used tanks to roll through the Germans’ barbed wire.
On the second day, of the original 476 tanks, only about half were operational as they sank into the mud. We lost around 45,000 casualties, as did the Germans, but that battle changed the course of the war and restored the hope of the Allies, because Britain worked on improving the tanks.
Grandad was wounded by a rifle bullet and brought home. His Silver War Badge, given to soldiers injured in action, is one of my most precious belongings now.
Twenty years later, Grandad went to Gifford House in Worthing, which did pioneering work on soldiers’ mental health and neurological injuries. They treated him as an outpatient for six months. He must have felt better because he went back to a job at Panteg Steelworks.
Grandad died, aged 61, in 1957, when I was five. He had lung cancer, which Mum felt was due to him being gassed all those years ago.
I wish Grandad had known how much the nation appreciated everything he did.