SECOND LIEUTENANT ROBERT ASTLEY FRANKLIN EMINSON
KING'S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS
20TH JULY 1916 AGE 24
BURIED: BECOURT MILITARY CEMETERY, BECORDEL-BECOURT, FRANCE
Robert Eminson's inscription comes from the Te Deum, a hymn of praise to God that forms a regular part of the Church of England's service of Matins.
We praise thee, O God:
We acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth praise thee:
The father everlasting.
...
The glorious company of the Apostles: praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets: praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs: praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world: doth acknowledge thee;
...
Robert Eminson was killed trying to bring in a wounded man. Scotter Parish Council website quotes eyewitness accounts of the circumstances of his death; the exact details vary but the end result was the same:
"There were a good many casualties and on the following morning your son observed a wounded man lying outside the trench, unable to get in by himself. He at once crawled out to him but found there would be some difficulty in getting him through the wire. It was after going out for the third time to reconnoitre a way in through the wire that the enemy machine gun caught him. The Battalion doctor went out to see if he could do anything, but your son was already dead."
"The wounded man was Sergeant Samuel Yerrell of the Northants. With both arms shattered by a bomb, he was helped back to the lines. Too exhausted to negotiate the barbed wire, he collapsed. "Then a Second Lieutenant jumped out of our trench and went to help them... a German fired at them, the bullet passing through Sam's back and right through the officer's heart. The officer was killed instantly, and poor Sam died an hour later... The brave officer...was Lieutenant Eminson.'"
Robert Eminson was an entomologist. Educated at Epsom College and Downing College, Cambridge, he went out to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in January 1913 to conduct research into the tsetse fly. He came home in January 1915 to join up.