THE GRAVE of a Second World War seaman could finally bear his name thanks to the Friends of Wombwell Cemetery.
Able Seaman Arthur Robinson, from York Street, Wombwell, was 32 when he was killed in April 1941, in an air raid on Portsmouth.
His body was brought back to Wombwell for burial and placed in the same plot as his parents, Harriet and Thomas.
But for some reason, Arthur was not given the customary white headstone by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
And until now, the family headstone has only bore the names of his parents and his older brother Albert, who was killed in the First World War while serving as a gunner with the Royal Field Artillery in the Battle of Ypres, even though Albert is buried in Bard Cottage Cemetery, Belgium.
It wasn’t until someone visited Wombwell Cemetery claiming to have seen some items relating to Arthur at a car boot sale that the Friends were alerted to the fact he was not named on the headstone.
The group contacted the CWGC and the wheels were set in motion to finally get Arthur some graveside recognition.
Friends’ chairman Karen Whiting said: “The CWGC came back and said he was listed on the grave, but we said ‘no, that’s Albert his brother’. It took some explaining and the confusion was added to because both men share the same initial.”
Arthur enlisted in the Royal Navy in May 1940 and served aboard the HMS Cleveland. He had been on shore leave shortly before his death and while on land, had sent a package of sweets home to his children which arrived two days after his death. Prior to the war, he had attended Park Street School and then worked at Mitchell Main Colliery.
At the time of his enlistment, he was a labourer for building firm Saville and Law.
Arthur had four brothers and one sister, as well as two children of his own.
Karen’s daughter Jessica Whiting said: “We do research on all of the war graves so we could access the information we had. It is a bit of a mystery as to why it has happened.”
The process has now begun between the council’s bereavement services and the CWGC to add Arthur’s name to the grave site.
