Stewart Coulson ROBINSON

TynesideZ/10483, Able Seaman. b. 1888, Clayton d. Thu. 2nd May 1918 (aged 30).

Another seafarer from Clayton to die on the oceans. The 1911 census shows Stewart aged 22 working as a clerk and living with his widower father Joseph and 5 brothers and sisters at 75 Oakleigh Road.

Stewart had gone into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in November 1916 and at the conclusion of his training was sent to serve aboard the S.S. Flawyl, a vessel which was serving primarily in the Mediterranean Sea. He served with this ship for over a year, and was a keen correspondent to his parents Joseph and Elizabeth Robinson of Inglebank Close.

His letters that arrived weekly contained detailed accounts of what he had been doing, and used to give his parents an additional insight into what life was like for him at sea. The last letter Stewart’s parents received was posted the week before he was pronounced missing in action and was sent from Cairo; Stewart had apparently given them a long description of his impressions of the city and said that he was well.

It is not known what happened to the Flawyl, but it was most likely that a German U-Boat or Destroyer torpedoed it on one of their frequent and unpredictable raids.

Many men of the Great War chose to join the navy or the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve instead of waiting to be conscripted. It was seen that the chances of survival were far higher at sea than in the trenches, which in a sense was true, and also because the old Imperial viewpoint that the British Navy was ‘invincible’ was still strongly upheld. Most of the British populous still firmly held the belief that the British Navy was unbeatable at sea, and consequently this option seemed like a good choice. Losses in the navy were far less than in the army in the Great War, but it may be worth considering that the chance of being wounded and surviving if a naval vessel was sunk was far slimmer than being wounded in the trenches.

Before enlisting, Stewart had been the Secretary of Clayton Baptist Church’s Young Men’s Club as well as Officer of the local lodge of the ‘Manchester Unity of Oddfellows’. He worked in the gown department of Frederick Ripley & Co. of Bradford Centre.

Since the research was conducted in 2007, many hitherto unknown on-line resources have become available. Naval History.net records that on 2nd May 1918, that steamship Flawyl, was  torpedoed and sunk by UB.52 in the Mediterranean; with a single the naval casualty listed as  ROBINSON, Stewart C, Able Seaman, RNVR, TynesideZ 10483.

U-Boat.net confirms that this U-Boat was U52 and records that Flawyl was en-route between Malta and Bizerte, Tunisia and was torpedoed 30 miles East South East of the Pantelleria Islands off Sicily, Italy. On 23rd May 1918 UB52 was itself torpedoed off Otranto Strait, off Albanian coast.

Stewart is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Chatham.