Captain Robin

Station Road, Addlestone, Chertsey c.1912

About now, on 7th November 1920, in a large comfortable Victorian home somewhere along this road, a little boy was born to a wool merchant and his second wife Ethel.

The new baby was christened Robin; he one big brother David, who was almost two.

Mum had married late and was 41 when Robin arrived; she doted on the family she never thought she’d get to have.

The boys would be sent to Westminster School and Robin was smart, earning a place at King’s College, University of London, intending to become a research chemist.

And then came the War.

By 9th September 1943, Robin was a Captain in 2/5th Queen’s (West Surreys) and midnight found him loading his Company into an assault landing craft; they were to be part of the leading wave in the Salerno landings.

Under cover of our naval guns, as they approached the beaches, the waiting enemy returning fire. Robin got his boys ashore just past 4am; his boat had been hit but he was unharmed.

They were to secure the beach-head and advance a mile inland by first light.

They’d taken their objective with few casualties by dawn and were in good spirits when a German tank was spotted advancing on them, the herald of a counter-attack by 16th Panzer Division.

The Battalion suffered heavily but drove off the attack and were ordered to advance again at midnight, to attack the tanks before they could reorganise.

Advancing carefully in the darkness, they’d reached a crossroads when suddenly the whole line came under intense fire. Robin dug in, to wait for the expected dawn attack.

But as the sun rose, it became clear that his Company was waiting in the middle of an encampment of enemy tanks.

As one by one their engines started and the bullets began to fly, Robin knew he had to get his men clear or they would be obliterated.

He ordered them to break out ‘as best as they could’.

But it was hopeless.

Only 20 men made it back to the Battalion, Captain Robin Fevez fell trying to lead his men out of hell.

And his brother David? He was already gone, brought down flying reconnaissance with 26 Squadron RAF over the Somme in early June 1940, trying to cover the evacuations at Dunkirk.

We owe them all so much.