Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Robert Green was one of ten children born to Thomas and Harriet Green of Stonecroft Terrace, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire. Before enlisting on 28 June 1915, Robert was a horse keeper and labourer in Haddenham.  He joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment and embarked for France from Folkstone just 16 days after passing through Peterborough East Station when he wrote the following in the visitors’ book:

“This little World of ours is mighty hard to beat
You get a thorn with every rose
But aint the roses sweet”

Within weeks of arriving in France Robert transferred to the 12^th Battalion Sussex Regiment, the regiment were involved in numerous major battles over the next couple of years.  The report below from the Cambridge Daily News, dated 20 September 1917, reveals how Private Green won the Military Medal in the 2^nd Battle of Ypres.

 “Pte Robert Green of the Sussex Regt has been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in the battle of Ypres on July 31 and August 1 and 2nd. Pte Green was a company runner, and immediately his company captured their objectives he was despatched with a message to battalion headquarters, which he delivered in admirable time. He had to cross “No man’s land” and go over trenches where hostile barrage was at its heaviest, and his work during the whole three days was excellent. Pte Green was the second son of Mr and Mrs Thomas Green of Haddenham and is only 20 years of age. He voluntarily enlisted on June 26 1915 and went to France in 1916. There is also another brother in the Army, Sergt George Green, of the King’s African Rifles who is now home on short leave and is expected to go to East Africa shortly.”

In February 1918, Private Green moved to the 11^th Sussex and within weeks was severely wounded by a gunshot to his right thigh.  Initially treated at the Etaples Military Hospital, he was transferred to the War Hospital in Guildford, where he was treated for a period of three months.  This was followed by a further four months spent at Eastern Command Depot Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea.  During this time Private Green undertook a ‘second occupation course’ which suggests that he was unlikely to return to being a farm labourer.  He was eventually medically discharged in March 1919, almost a year after being wounded.

Robert married Maude Playle in Ely in 1924 and they had four children Elsie (1926), Peggy (1930), Margery (1932) and Peter (1935).  In 1939, the family were living in Stretham Road, Ely and Robert was proprietor of a poultry farm near Ely.  Research suggests that Robert passed away in Norfolk in 1985, aged 88.

Please get in touch if you can tell us more about Robert and his family.