Corporal 8298, “C” Coy. 17th Bn. Manchester Regiment.
Killed in Action 10th March 1916, aged 28
Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Robert was born in 1887 at Wilmslow to Samuel and Elizabeth Sturgeon.
The Tech Registers show that Robert enrolled on a Special Class in Heat Engine Testing course in 1906-07. He is listed as a draughtsman living in Heaton Moor and working for Crossley Bros., an engineering firm in Openshaw. Other sources note him as being an Architect’s Assistant articled to Alfred Ernest Woodhouse between 1903 and 1912. In 1913 he passed the Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architect examinations going on to employment with the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Balloon Street, Manchester.
At the outbreak of war Robert enlisted into the 17th Battalion Manchester Regiment. His unit went to France in November 1915. He is believed to have gone missing during a patrol in the Maricourt sector on 10th March 1916.