Lance Corporal Charles Graham Robertson served with the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers during World War I. He fought in several major battles on the Western Front including the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. During the German Spring Offensive in 1918 near Polderhoek Chateau, Belgium, Robertson defended his position alone with a Lewis gun after his unit was cut off, killing many enemy soldiers, before being wounded. For his bravery, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for valor. Robertson also previously earned the Military Medal for his actions in 1917. After the war, Robertson returned to his career with the London and North Eastern Railway, and later joined

1. Rank: Lance Corporal
Service Number: G58769
Date of Birth: 4th July 1879
Battalion: 10th (Stockbrokers) Battalion
Early Life
Charles was born in High Bentham, Yorkshire and was bought up by his Mother’s sister Catherine and her
brother, James. Not long after Charles’s birth they moved to Dorking, Surrey to enable James to take a job
as a gardener on a local estate. Charles was educated at Dorking High School.
Military Life
Charles volunteered as a Trooper in the Middlesex Imperial Yeomanry and fought in the Boer War receiving
the Queens South Africa Medal. After returning to Great Britain and resuming work as a Ticket Booking
Clerk with the London Northern and Eastern Railway, Charles came to see this war as ’Dishonourable’. He
appears to have sold this medal and it ended up in a private collection being reunited with the rest of
Charles’s medals when it was bought by the museum in 1996.
Charles went on to enlist with the 10th (known unofficially as the Stockbrokers) Battalion of the Royal
Fusiliers. In November 1915 he joined the rest of the Battalion who had been in France since the 30th July
1915.
It is likely that Charles saw action during the Battle of the Somme where the Battalion were engaged.
He was wounded in April 1917 at the Battle of Arras.
On the 1st September 1917 Charles won the Military Medal at Estaminet Corner near Wytschaete, (known
to the British Tommy as ‘White Sheets’) during the 3rd Battle of Ypres.
Charles Graham Robertson VC, MM

2. On the 8 - 9th of August 1918, whilst fighting at Polderhoek Chateau on the Menin Road outside Ypres, Charles won the Victoria Cross.
The Citation read as follows:
‘’For conspicuous bravery in repelling a strong attack by the enemy on the 8th/9th March, 1918 near Polderhoek Chateau, Belgium. Realising that they were
cut off, Lance-Corporal Robertson sent two men to get reinforcements, whilst remaining at his post, along with one other man, firing his Lewis gun and killing
large numbers of the enemy. No reinforcements came. Realising that he was completely cut off, he withdrew, with the only other survivor, took a place 10
yards to the rear. Here he successfully defended his position, staying for some time, firing his gun and inflicting casualties on the enemy. He was forced to
withdraw again when the position came under heavy hostile bombing and machine-gun fire. Arriving at a defended post, he and a comrade mounted a
machine gun in a shell-hole. From this position they kept up a continuous fire at the enemy who were now pouring into an adjacent trench. They had not been
firing long when his comrade was killed. Lance-Corporal Robertson was also wounded. In this condition he crawled back with his machine gun, being unable
to fire it as he had exhausted all of the ammunition’’.
Later Life
After the war Charles returned to his job with the LNE Railway. Apart from a gold watch
presented by the people of Dorking, Charles refused any financial rewards insisting that any
money raised should go to local charities instead.
During 1939 at the age of 60 Charles married Doreen Gascoigne and later that year joined the
Home Guard as a Sergeant.
Charles died on the 10th May 1954 in Dorking.
In September 2015 the Railway Heritage Trust erected a plaque to commemorate Charles near to
the East India Dock DLR station at Blackwall Way, London, recognising his achievements both as a
Railwayman and a VC winner.
Plaque erected by the Railway Heritage Trust
at East India Dock