Another of the ‘Patriotic Filey Family’ of the Great War (see Filey Casualties of the Great War for details); Robert was the second Watkinson of that name to die in course of the two conflicts.  Robert was the local Boy Scout leader for Filey and was the son of E.W. Watkinson who lived at 71, Newthorpe.

          It appears that Robert died whilst training as firstly he is buried in St. Oswald’s and secondly his vessel was listed as H.M.M.L. 201 (Royal Navy).  The nature of this vessel is somewhat mysterious, as throughout my research I have never managed to determine what H.M.M.L. 201 was or even what the initials stood for.  As all vessels that were lost on active service are recorded somewhere I can only assume that this vessel was used for cadet training purposes; Robert’s age and rank would back this hypothesis.