Alexander Robertson (1882 - 1916) - British Schoolteacher & Poet

The poet Alexander Robertson was born on 12th January 1882 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Alexander featured in the exhibition of Poets, Writers and Artists of the Somme, 1916 which was on display at the Award-winning Wilfred Owen Story in Birkenhead, Wirral, UK in 2016. 

Alexander was born in St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, the eldest son and second child of five born to Robert Robertson, a schoolteacher, and his wife Mary Jane Robertson.

After studying at Edinburgh University, Alexander taught history before going up to Oxford.  He took up a post at Sheffield University in February 1914.   

When war broke out, Alexander volunteered and joined the 12th (Service) (Sheffield) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment as a Private.   The Battalion was sent to Egypt before being deployed to the Western Front.  Alexander was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme - 1st July 1916 - near Serre.   His body was not recovered but he is remembered on the Thiepval Mamorial, Pier and Face 14 A and 14 B.

At the time of his death on the Western Front on 1st July 1916, Alexander was an Acting Corporal.

Alexander Robertson 

Alexander's WW1 Poetry collections were:  "Comrades, poems" (Elkin Mathews, London, 1916) and "Last Poems" published after his death by Elkin Mathews in 1918.  Alexander's poems were included in six WW1 anthologies, including "The Muse in Arms".

There is a book of the Somme Poets 1916 Exhibition http://www.poshupnorth.com/2016/06/the-somme-1916-available-1st-july-pre.html

“Lines before going” 

Soon is the night of our faring to regions unknown,

There not to flinch at the challenge suddenly thrown

By the great process of Being – daily to see

The utmost that life has of horror and yet to be

Calm and the masters of fear. Aware that the soul

Lives as a part and alone for the weal of the whole,

So shall the mind be free from the pain of regret,

Vain and enfeebling, firm in each venture, and yet

Brave not as those who despair, but keen to maintain,

Though not assured, hope in beneficent pain,

Hope that the truth of the world is not what appears,

Hope in the triumph of man for the price of his tears.

Alexander Robertson from "Comrades" published in "THE MUSE IN ARMS 

A COLLECTION OF WAR POEMS, FOR THE MOST 

PART WRITTEN IN THE FIELD OF ACTION, BY 

SEAMEN, SOLDIERS, AND FLYING MEN WHO ARE 

SERVING, OR HAVE SERVED, IN THE GREAT WAR" 

EDITED BY E.B. OSBORN   (JOHN MURRAY, London, 1917), page 44.

Sources:

Find my Past,

Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 276.

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/alexander-robertson/