There's a destiny that shapes our Pigs, rough-hew them how we will

Robert Gwatkin

Robert’s story is the hardest one so far that I have had to write. I don’t feel that his story is complete yet, so I anticipate coming back in the future to include more details, but in the meantime I think that it is important that his story is heard.

Robert was born in 1885 to Joshua Reynolds Gascoigne and Arundel Augusta (Penruddocke) Gwatkin and was brought up at The Manor House, Potterne with his only surviving sibling, Arundel Theophilia Gwatkin. This seems to have been a comfortable existence – the 1911 census shows the family with 8 servants including a butler, footman, cook and two lady’s maids. Robert was a descendant of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds – his niece Theophilia had married Robert Lovell Gwatkin in 1781. Our Robert was the great, great grandson of Robert and Theophilia Gwatkin. The artistic genes appeared to have travelled through the family because our Robert’s grandfather, John Reynolds Gwatkin, was also an artist (see here for one of his paintings Skinner's Horse at Exercise, 1840 (c) | Online Collection | National Army Museum, London (nam.ac.uk)).

The 1901 census shows Robert to have been a student at Harrow, and from there he gained admission to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (as per The Salisbury Times, 21 August 1903). It is tempting to speculate that it was here that he met Esmond Copland-Griffiths, who would later marry his sister to become his brother-in-law, because this account New Page — Lucy's Diary (lucysdiary.org) refers to Esmond being at the Royal Military College in 1904.

Service records for Robert are held at the National Archives, and have not yet been digitised, so information about his military career has been picked up through newspaper articles and certain military documents that have been digitised and available online, such as the British Army Lists.

From the Royal Military College, Robert became a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Dragoon Guards (Army and Navy Gazette, 28th January 1905). He swiftly joined the regiment in India, travelling to Bombay on the SS Egypt. His time in India was not long – a note in the Madras Weekly Mail (31 August 1905) states that “2nd Lieutenant R T Gwatkin…….is permitted to proceed to England on the recommendation of a medical board in anticipation of the leave which will be hereafter granted to him”. Robert returned to his regiment on 2 March 1907. At the moment, I haven’t established whether the regiment were still in India at this point or whether they had returned to the UK.

On the 20 August 1907, Robert gained his promotion to Lieutenant which is the rank he maintained for the rest of his life. In 1912, the 6th Dragoon Guards became part of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, based out of Canterbury. At the outbreak of WW1, the Brigade moved to France in August 1914. There, Robert would have been part of several battles including the Battle of Mons. 1914 and 1915 saw the Brigade take part in both the first and second Battle of Ypres.

The British Army List of 1916 shows from 1912, Robert had several periods when he was placed on the Half Pay list, probably due to ill health. His final period of Half Pay commenced on 10 August 1916.

On the 27th April 1917, Robert Gwatkin was found dead, having shot himself through his heart. At the inquest that followed, it was explained that Robert “had met with two serious accidents, both of which led to concussion, and that at times he was mentally depressed, particularly because of the fact that he was unable to take part in the war he considered he ought to.” (Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser 28 April 1917). The jury determined that his injury was self-inflicted “but that he was not responsible for his actions at the time” (ibid).

Robert was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Potterne. His parents requested that his name appear on the village War Memorial, a request that was refused by Memorial Committee Potterne - WW1 Casualty - Robert T. Gwatkin 1917 (wiltshire-opc.org.uk) It was not until 20th March 2011 that Lt Gwatkin became regarded as a Casualty of the Great War. I find this to be heart-breaking.

His brother-in-law erected a brass plaque to honour Robert (copyright of the image below belongs to Duncan and Mandy Ball, and was accessed via their website Duncan & Mandy's Website (oodwooc.co.uk)).