George Horace Townsend Robey

Service number: 530

Rank: Sergeant

Unit: 9th Infantry

Service:

Date of death:

Cemetery or memorial details:

War Grave Register notes:

Source: National Archives of Australia

George H Townsend Robey was born in 1884 at ‘Bradford’, Manly to Horace and Violet Townsend Robey. He was an engineer.

He enlisted on 19 August 1914 and served at Gallipoli. He was awarded the DCM, (Distinguished Conduct Medal), on 3 June 1915 for bravery at Gallipoli. He was promoted to Corporal on 26 April 1916 and Sergeant on 1 September 1916. He returned to Australia on the Leicestershire on 9 December 1918. On 8 December 1920 he married Florence Ruby Clark of Brisbane. The following obituary appeared in Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 1940:

“The death occurred yesterday of Mr George Horace Townsend Robey, founder and general secretary of the Australian Air League, aged 56. Mr Robey was a son of the late Horace Townsend Robey, founder of Robey, Hanson and Strong, Pty Ltd, the oldest real estate agency in Manly. For a time he was a jackeroo on a station in North Queensland. He was an original Anzac. He served four years and four months at the war, and was one of the first Australians to be awarded the DCM for gallant conduct at Gallipoli. A lighter full of wounded troops had broken away and was under fire. Mr Robey, who was a strong swimmer, swam with a rope and made it fast to the lighter, thereby saving the troops in it.

Mr Robey was a member of the Royal Aero Club. Six years ago he founded the Australian Air League. Two years ago he established an Air League in Victoria, and 12 months ago he started a similar movement in Queensland. The league in New South Wales grew rapidly, and his services became so essential to its success that the council of the league eventually persuaded him to devote the whole of his time to it as general secretary. Upon his return from the last war, Mr Robey married Ruby, a daughter of Captain A J Clarke. His only son, Mr Keith Robey, was the first cadet in the Australian Air League, and now has his A pilot’s licence.

Before the war Mr Robey was a prominent member of the Manly Life-saving Club and the Manly Sailing Club, and during the depression he was a member of the council of the Unemployed Relief Committee. As a mark of respect for him flags were flown at half-mast in Manly yesterday. A service will be held at St Matthew’s Church of England, Manly, at 2.15 today, before his funeral leaves for Manly Cemetery.”

He and his twin sister were born 19 July 1886 at Manly [sic – in fact it was his brother Atwell who was born in 1886; George was born in 1884 [1] .His parents Horace Townsend Robey and Violet Florence Townsend, married 18 August 1880 [2]. His father Horace died 7 August 1915 at the family home Lauriston, James Street, Manly, aged 70 [3].

[1] SMH 20 July 1886; NSW BDM records George’s birth under the name Horace G T Robey.

[2] SMH 4 Nov 1880.

[3] SMH 9 Aug 1915.