Family Connections with the First World War

As a family, we have few connections with WW1. The nearest relative who died was Charles Herbert Gordon Roberts, the nephew of my great Grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts. Charles was the son of Charles Augustus Roberts whom prepared the "Genealogy of the family of Roberts of Sheffield 1937". Charles Herbert must have resided in Canada at the outbreak of war as he joined the Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment) 5th Battalion. He died on 11th December 1916 and is buried in Villers Station Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France. Grave Reference 1V.C.1. Villers-au-Bois is a village 11 kilometers north west of Arras. His parents, Charles Augustus Roberts and Emily Marianne Roberts (ne de-Castro) were living in Birkenhead, England. This information was found on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

My grandfather Stanley Boyd Roberts was 24 at the outbreak of war. As far as I can tell, he never enlisted, possibly because of his eyesight, or his profession of solicitor.

When I found a website on Sheffield Local History (http://history.youle.info/), one item was particularly interesting. It was a booklet called "Lest I Forget. My First Experiences At The Front" written by an Eric S Roberts about his experiences in the First World War and published on 23rd May 1918. He was a Lieutenant in the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment. This must be the same Eric S Roberts who appears on the family tree in the 1971 Edition of "Some Memorials of the Family of Roberts" where it shows he was born on 17th May 1893. He was the youngest son of Sir Samuel Roberts 1852-1926. The full text can be found by searching "Eric S Roberts Lest I Forget".

He also signed a copy (along with all the other members of the Repertory Theatre, Sheffield) of "The Works of William Shakespeare" that was presented to my father after the production of "Sing a Song of Christmas" 1930-1931. He was 13 years old. Fourteen years later, he also was commissioned as a Lieutenant in ..... The Yorks and Lancaster Regiment.

As for my mother's side of the family, her father Ralph and his brothers James, Thomas and George were all coal miners so they were never joining up.