Private Albert Edward Frost Robinson

Albert Robinson was born in Montreal on July 7, 1894, but his father, C.B. Robinson, was living in Paris when Albert enlisted with 3^rd University Company in Montreal on August 19, 1915. C.B. Robinson was the Secretary-Treasurer of Penmans Limited. Albert was a student at the University of Alberta at the time and had some cadet training prior to his enlistment with the 3^rd University Company. He seems not to have ever lived in Paris, though he likely visited his parents there. They lived at 230 Grand River Street North. They attended Paris Presbyterian Church.

The 3rd University Company was designated as the No. 2 University Company and served as the third reinforcing draft for the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). They sailed from Canada on June 29, 1915, with 6 officers and 264 men recruited largely through McGill University in Montreal.

The Battle of Sanctuary Wood (June 2–13, 1916) was a localized but exceptionally brutal conflict within the larger Battle of Mount Sorrel in the Ypres Salient, Belgium. It holds a grim place in Canadian military history as one of the most intense and concentrated artillery bombardments of World War I. In early June 1916, German forces launched a massive surprise offensive aimed at capturing the high ground surrounding Ypres, which was defended by the newly formed 3rd Canadian Division. On the morning of June 2, the Germans unleashed a catastrophic bombardment that completely leveled the trenches. Entire platoons were buried alive, and the landscape of Sanctuary Wood—previously a dense forest—was reduced to shattered stumps and craters. Following the shelling, German forces exploded four subterranean mines and advanced into the obliterated Canadian lines.

The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) bore the brunt of the assault in the left sector of Sanctuary Wood. Though completely cut off from reinforcements, communication lines, and supplies, individual pockets of "Patricias" stubbornly held their ground or launched immediate, desperate counterattacks to delay the German advance. The battalion suffered over 400 casualties in just the first few days of the battle.

Private Albert Robinson was killed in action on June 4, 1916, during the Battle of Sanctuary Wood. During the height of the German offensive, Albert was initially registered by the military as "Missing" after his position was overrun. His Platoon Commander, Lieutenant Stanley Fife, and several fellow University of Alberta students serving alongside him were killed in the exact same engagement. Because his body could not be located in the flattened, artillery-churned landscape, the Canadian military changed his status from missing to "Killed in Action" on June 4, 1916. Due to the complete obliteration of the trenches by intense shellfire, Albert’s physical remains were never recovered or identified.

By December 16, 1916, the Brantford Courier published a definitive update confirming his death. After six months without word, the military officially informed his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C.B. Robinson, that Albert was officially "presumed dead" as of June 4. Because Albert was part of the 3rd University Company, local editors heavily romanticized his status as a student-soldier. The papers lamented that a brilliant young man with a promising future at the University of Alberta was cut down at just 22 years old. The articles emphasized the community’s shared grief with his father, who was well-regarded locally as the executive Secretary-Treasurer of Penmans Limited. The town viewed the family's loss as a collective sacrifice for Paris, Ontario.

A more permanent memorial can be found at the Menin Gate, situated at the eastern side of the town of Ypres (now Ieper) in the Province of West Flanders, on the road to Menin and Courtrai. It bears the names of 55,000 soldiers from the British Empire who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War. The dead are remembered to this day in a simple ceremony that takes place every evening at 8:00 p.m. All traffic through the gateway in either direction is halted, and two buglers (on special occasions four) move to the centre of the Hall and sound the Last Post. Two silver trumpets for use in the ceremony are a gift to the Ypres Last Post Committee by an officer of the Royal Canadian Artillery, who served with the 10th Battery, of St. Catharines, Ontario, in Ypres in April 1915. Private Albert Edward Robinson’s name is carved in that monument.