Missing,
Presumed Killed

   


'Bill with parents' shows Bill as a baby on his mother, Mary Robins' lap, his father, Ben Robins in uniform (he served in the British Army in WW1) and his eldest brother Ben, who was also a merchant seaman for the whole of his working life - he died in his sixties - about 1976. Bill never married and had no children.



'Bill on board ship' - it is believed that Bill is on the right. No date or ship identified.

  


'Bill at home' shows, back row from left, his sister Dorothy, his mother Mary and Bill himself; front row from left, his youngest sister Irene and his sister Patricia. This was taken on the balcony of Perrin House in Kilburn, London, where they lived, in about 1933/34 (his mother died in 1934 and Irene and Pat look about 3/4 and 5/6 respectively).



Only two of Bill's siblings are now alive - Irene, the youngest child of the family, born in 1930 and Betty born in 1926. Bill's third and only other brother, Fred, was also a seaman: both he and his wife, Jean, served in the Royal Navy during WW2. Irene's son, Andrew Giles (Bill's nephew) spent his whole career in the Royal Navy; he retired in September in 2011 as Commander in charge of the Royal Navy Sea Cadets.