Our colleague Andrew Behan has kindly researched this man: Leading Aircraftman Francis William Robinson was born on 24 February 1913 in Wandsworth, the son of Francis William Robinson and Annie Robinson née Brown. His father was a Railway Clerk. Electoral registers from 1918 show the family living at 80a Hearnville Road, London, SW12. In 1938 he married Dorothy Ella Parlett in Wandsworth and the 1939 England and Wales Register shows them living at 52 Tooting Bec Road, London, SW17. His occupation was recorded as a Clerk Textile Section L.C.C. Supplies Dept and his wife was a Solicitor's Shorthand Typist. In 1941 their daughter, Denise, was born.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 1166481, and was attached to their No.1. Base Signals and Radar Unit (BSRU) in England. It was decided to move the unit to a site in Ghent, Belgium and upon receipt of movement orders in the marshalling area in Essex, 19 officers and 250 enlisted personnel of No. 1 BSRU (some sources say 263 officers and men) boarded a Tank Landing Ship, LST420, with their 50 vehicles, equipment and supplies, the remaining officer and 33 enlisted men of the unit boarded another LST with several of their vehicles.
On 7 November 1944, a small convoy of vessels comprising LST200, LST320, LST367, LST405 and LST420 crossed the English Channel bound for Ostend, Belgium. The weather had been very poor for a week and a severe storm was rising. By mid-afternoon when they arrived off the Belgian coast conditions were terrible, and as a result they were refused permission to enter port at Ostend due to concerns that an accident in the harbour's mouth might cause considerable disruption in the supply line for land forces. The convoy duly altered course back towards England planning to shelter overnight in the Thames Estuary before returning to Ostend on the following day.
At approximately 3.00pm, within sight of Ostend, the bow section of LST420 struck a powerful German mine that tore a large hole in the ship's hull causing it to break into two parts. The ship's galley fires were lit at the time due to the evening meal being prepared and gallons of petrol from the damaged fuel tanks of the vehicles caught fire enveloping the stern section of the ship in flame. LST420 sank very rapidly and due to the heavy seas only larger vessels were able to attempt to rescue survivors in the water. Of the ill-fated BSRU only 31 or 32 men were saved from life rafts. He died, aged 31 years, and was buried in Row B, Grave 13 at the Blankenberge Town Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium.
