LEWIS GUNNER'S WWI MEMENTOS COME TO REGIMENTAL MUSEUM
28th August 2009

Private William Lincoln Robinson

Mementos of a World War 1 soldier, including a uniform jacket with a rare 'Lewis Gunner' badge, have been presented to the Green Howards Regimental Museum in Richmond by his descendants.

Private William Lincoln Robinson served with the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment - The Green Howards - in France during the War, including time spent as an operator of the Lewis Automatic Machine Gun, adopted by the British Army in 1915.  As well as the uniform jacket - which was for many years kept in a barn in Robinson's home village of Scorton near Richmond - the Museum has also been given his cap with its Green Howards badge, his identity tag and his webbing belts.

William Robinson seems to have been a hoarder of memorabilia, for the collection also contains an assortment of other items, including three small brooches with the names of liberated towns - Messines, Ypres and Lens - a German shaving mug, a collection of postcards from France, a wallet containing the remains of powder that soldiers were to rub on their faces in case of a mustard gas attack, and even a piece of the hardtack they were fed.   

The items, which also included Private Robinson's medals and a button with a picture of him inside it,  were handed to the Museum's Director Lynda Powell by his family, who now live in Leeming Bar.  Lynda Powell says, 'It's really exciting to have this diverse and fascinating collection from a Green Howards Private in the First World War.  The Lewis Gunner badge is particularly unusual, and we are very grateful to his family for presenting everything to the Museum.'

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