Page 78 - They Also Served

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Lewis Robertson 1901.
Lewis Robertson was born on 4th August 1883 in Hawthornden. Educated at Cargilfield Prep School and Fettes College, he entered Sandhurst in 1901. Commissioned into the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders on 22nd April 1903 and stationed firstly at Fort George, Inverness, then Ireland, he became a skilled rugby forward, playing for London Scottish and the Army.
In 1908, Robertson was selected to play for Scotland versus England at Inverleith, a match in which the home side triumphed 16–10. Ignored by the selectors for a while, he played for the Army in the matches versus the Navy before receiving a second international cap in a defeat against Wales, again at home. After another year in the rugby wilderness, Robertson was called up again in February 1912 to face Wales in Swansea, followed by matches against Ireland in Dublin and England in Edinburgh. Later that year, he was capped in the home match against South Africa.
By now a senior lieutenant, Robertson was posted as assistant superintendent of gymnasia in Eastern Command, stationed at Shorncliffe. Given time to pursue his international career, he played in all the 1913 home nations fixtures, with defeats to England and Wales and a thumping 29–14 victory over Ireland. He also captained the Army to victory over the Navy, playing in every fixture from 1909 to 1914. Royal Marine officer and England international Major H C ‘Dreadnought’ Harrison wrote of him: ‘He was quite the hardest man I ever came up against on the football field. He used to go through every game with teeth clenched, often muttering to himself to spur him on. He was a terror to run up against, as hard as a nail’.
Upon the outbreak of war, Captain Robertson was recalled to his regiment and accompanied the 1st Battalion to France. On 2nd November 1914, near Ypres, he was wounded in the shoulder and evacuated to have the wound dressed. However, he insisted on rejoining his men and was wounded again, dying the following day. He is buried in the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery. His brother officers referred to him as ‘Chevalier sans peur et sans reproach’ (The knight without fear and beyond reproach).
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