Robert Arthur Startin OBE AM

b. 07/02/1894 Stoke Demerel, Devon. d. 14/09/1967 Crowborough, Sussex.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 28/03/1916 Harwich, Essex.

Robert was one of four children born to Sir James and Alice Startin. His father was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and also a recipient of the Albert Medal, making them the only father and son to date to be both awarded the medal. By the age of 5, the family had emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, where his youngest brother Harry was born. Robert followed his father into the Royal Navy and served throughout the Great War. Tragically his elder brother Francis was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. In June 1935, he married Margaret Evelyn Collins in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and they had a son and two daughters. He died in Crowborough Hospital in Sussex in 1967 where he had retired after the Navy.

 

AM CITATION:

During the violent gale and snowstorm on the night of the 28th March, 1916, the whaler of H.M.S. ” Melpomene,” with a crew of six men, was driven, by the blizzard on to the mud about 3/4 of a mile up the river above the Parkstone Jetty, Harwich. Lieut. Startin, on hearing that the whaler was missing, set out alone to search along the river bed. After wading through deep mud, at times up to his armpits, for a distance of about 300 yards, he eventually found the whaler, half full of water, aground on the mud, with her crew lying helpless in the boat, having given up all hope of being rescued. He only succeeded in rousing them by beating them with his stick, one man having to be forcibly dragged all the way to the shore by Lieut. Startin and the coxswain of the boat. After dragging him for about an hour, a distance of about 40 or 50 yards had been covered, when a light was seen moving inshore. Lieut. Startin ordered the crew to remain where they where whilst he went to the light, which proved to be carried by a search party with a rope. This rope was taken backwards and forwards personally by Lieut. Startin from the shore to the boat’s crew until each one had been rescued, this exhausting and dangerous task in the deep mud being performed under the most trying weather conditions. All the crew were thus saved, though one afterwards died from the effects of exposure.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: TUNBRIDGE WELLS CEMETERY, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT.

SECTION A8 GRAVE 22RB

LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD.

Acknowledgement:

Friends of Tunbridge Wells Cemetery – Image of Robert Startin OBE AM Grave.