Edward Robinson

Most men would have sought cover when enemy fire turned their own battery into a burning trap. Edward Robinson climbed directly onto it. With ammunition nearby, flames spreading through the earthworks and enemy marksmen firing from barely fifty yards away, the nineteen-year-old sailor repeatedly exposed himself to extinguish the blaze. He succeeded, but the courage that saved the battery left him permanently disabled.

Edward Robinson was born in Portsea, Hampshire, in 1838 and entered the Royal Navy on 11 August 1852 at only fourteen years of age. He began his naval career as a Boy Second Class aboard HMS Victory, Nelson’s former flagship, which was then being used as a training ship. He later served aboard HMS Dido, becoming an Ordinary Seaman in 1856, before joining the newly commissioned screw frigate HMS Shannon. By 1857, Robinson had earned promotion to Able Seaman.

HMS Shannon sailed from Britain in March 1857, originally bound for service in Chinese waters. While the ship was travelling east, rebellion erupted across northern India. After reaching Singapore, Shannon was redirected to Calcutta, where Captain William Peel VC formed a Naval Brigade of approximately 400 sailors and marines. The sailors left their ship behind and hauled heavy naval guns hundreds of miles inland to support British forces fighting during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, historically recorded in British sources as the Indian Mutiny.

Robinson marched and fought with the Shannon Naval Brigade during the operations connected with Lucknow. The brigade participated in the relief of the besieged Residency in November 1857 and returned four months later for the final assault on the city. Naval guns were brought forward against heavily fortified positions, often under intense musketry and artillery fire. Robinson’s service in both stages of the campaign later earned him the Indian Mutiny Medal with the clasps Relief of Lucknow and Lucknow.

On 13 March 1858, during the renewed struggle for Lucknow, the Shannon Naval Brigade established a battery protected by hastily constructed earthworks, sandbags, branches, straw and dried vegetation. The weather was intensely hot, water was scarce and the defensive works had become dangerously dry. Enemy fire ignited the sandbags surrounding the naval guns. Nearby ammunition and shells were now threatened by the spreading flames, while enemy troops continued firing from only about fifty yards away.

When volunteers were needed, Robinson immediately stepped forward. Carrying water bags, he crossed the protective wall and climbed onto the burning battery in full view of the enemy. Two engineers working nearby were reportedly shot down, but Robinson continued. After emptying the water, he returned for more and again crossed the exposed ground. He made repeated attempts to extinguish the flames, pouring water onto the burning sandbags and throwing others clear before the fire could spread further.

During his fifth attempt, Robinson was struck by enemy fire. A musket ball passed through his shoulder and shattered his collarbone. Other accounts record additional wounds to his arm and neck. He collapsed unconscious into a trench and was pulled back to safety by his comrades. Although dangerously wounded and permanently disabled, he had successfully completed the task.

His courage was recognised in The London Gazette on 24 December 1858. The official citation praised his conspicuous bravery in climbing onto the sandbags of the battery “under a heavy musketry fire, within fifty yards” and extinguishing the fire despite being dangerously wounded. Robinson received the Victoria Cross from Queen Victoria in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle on 4 January 1860.

The wounds Robinson suffered at Lucknow ended his active naval career. He was discharged from the Royal Navy on medical grounds in September 1858 after only six years of service. He subsequently spent approximately ten years in the Coastguard Service and later worked in the Naval Reserve Office in London. In 1893, he was appointed gatekeeper at Albert Bridge, one of the entrances to Windsor Home Park. Local accounts record that he proudly wore his Victoria Cross while performing his duties on the Windsor Castle estate.

Edward Robinson died at Albert Bridge Lodge on 2 October 1896 and was buried in Old Windsor Cemetery. His Victoria Cross and Indian Mutiny Medal are preserved by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The reverse of his Victoria Cross bears the inscription “EDWD. ROBINSON A.B. NAVAL BRIGADE”, while its suspension bar records the date that defined his legacy: 13 March 1858.

Edward Robinson was not an admiral, an officer or a commander. He was a young able seaman who saw fire threatening his comrades and their guns, stepped out from cover and climbed into the flames. His courage at Lucknow transformed six brief years of naval service into an enduring story of sacrifice, duty and extraordinary valour.