Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Brackenridge, Robert Robertson, 1918-1944
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1918-1944
History
Brackenridge, Robert Robertson, son of James Hastie Brackenridge, textile manufacturer, of Wimbledon, and Margaret, d. of Robert Robertson of Larkhall, Lanarkshire; b. 23 Feb. 1918; adm. Sept. 1931 (A); left July 1935; RA 1940-4 (Capt.); d. of wounds in ltaly 30 May 1944.
Robert Robertson Brackenridge was born on the 23rd of February 1918 the younger son of James Hastie Brackenridge, a company director of a textile manufacturer, and Margaret (nee Robertson) Brackenridge of Lanark, Lanarkshire later of 9, Inner Park Road, Wimbledon Common in Surrey. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy where he was in Mackenzie House from 1929 to July 1931, and at Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from September 1931 to July 1934. On leaving school he was employed as an apprentice surveyor with Knight, Frank & Rutley, Estate Agents.
He enlisted in the Royal Signals in November 1939 and attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on the 26th of October 1940. He served with Heavy Anti Aircraft and Light Anti Aircraft units in the UK, North Africa and in Italy and was promoted to Captain on the 3rd of January 1944.
On the 19th of May 1944, 75 Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery left the area of Trocchio and crossed the Rapido River the next day where it arrived at its new positions at 5pm. On the 21st of May 1944, the Regiment spent its time in reconnaissance and in ranging its guns in preparation for a planned attack on the Hitler Line which was due to begin two days later. During the afternoon the enemy began shelling the Cassino area and a shell struck the truck in which Robert Brackenridge was travelling, severely damaging it and badly wounding him. He was taken to hospital where he died from his wounds nine days later.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Edinburgh Academy.
He is buried at Naples War Cemetery Plot I, Row O, Grave 16.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Captain 153604 75 (Highland) Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
GB 2014
Rules and/or conventions used
International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition
Status
Final
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.
Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.