Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
Sjt. Robert Rymer MM.
British Army 150th Coy Machine Gun Corps
from:North Ormesby, Middlesbrough
(d.10th Apr 1918)
Robert Rymer was an apprentice pork butcher prior to the war. He joined the Yorkshire Regiment (4th or 5th Battn) with the service number 1800. He transferred to the 150th Machine Gun Company in 1916 and this was renamed 50th Battalion M.G.C. in 1917.
I was told by the son of a friend of Roberts who survived the war that he was apparently he was a bit of a boxer; during the war one man tried to goad some of the men into fighting him by throwing around pair of boxing gloves, until Bob picked them up and gave him, a 'good hiding'. There was also a rumor that he turned a machine gun on some German prisoners when he realised his younger brother (James) had been killed at the battle of the Somme in 10th July 1916. There is a line in one of his letters to his sister Meg, where he says the 'tarts' thought he was a bit of a hero when they saw his 'little bit of ribbon' which was obviously his M.M. ribbon.
His niece, who I spoke to in the early 80's, remembers going to see Robert off at Middlesbrough railway station on his last leave, she also remembers him singing a song called 'Moira my girl'. He was 24 years old when he was killed in action. His father never got over the loss of his two sons and died a short while afterwards.
Additional Information:
