HOPE Alexander Robbie A/Sergt

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Surname: HOPE;

Forename(s): Alexander Robbie;

Initials: AR;

Rank: A/Sergt;

Born in: Glasgow;

Enlisted in: Grove Park, London;

Previous Number: M2/106134;

Previous Regiment: Army Service Corps;

MGC Branch: Motors;

MGC Unit: Unknown;

Awarded: MID;

Other Data: Armourer, ASC attd Armoured Motor Brigade. Later 2 Lieut.(18/12/1917)
From "The Long Trail - June 2011:
Alexander Robbie Hope was born on the 13th July 1882 at 42 West Milton Street, Glasgow. He was the only son of Peter Hope, an ‘omnibus driver’ and Isabella Walker, a onetime domestic servant, who had married on the 28th November 1973 in Govan, Lanarkshire. Alexander grew up in Glasgow with his elder sister Cristina and was educated at Normal College and Woodside Secondary School in Glasgow. By his own account, Alexander worked for seven years as a Locomotive Fireman, both in Scotland and South Africa. It is likely that his career on the railway began in the late 1890’s and that his time in South Africa was around 1902/03.

Alexander returned to Scotland and, giving up his life on the railways, trained as a motor mechanic. In May 1906 he became a Chauffeur, working for ‘Telegrams Explosive’ of 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, driving and repairing the cars until April 1911. It was during this period as a Chauffeur in Glasgow that he married Wilhelmina Scott at the Hotel Balmoral, Sauchiehall Street on the 8th August 1907.

Around 1911, Alexander and Wilhelmina travelled to Canada, where he worked as a driver for two years. From November 1912 to May 1913 he worked as a driver and mechanic for a motor agency at 1043 Pender Street, Vancouver. It was whilst in Canada, that Alexander and Wilhelmina had the first of two children, Granville Robbie Hope, born in Vancouver on the 10th September 1913.

Alexander returned to Scotland shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, and went back to working as a driver. He had military experience before the war, with two volunteer units, serving from September 1899 with the 1st Lanark Royal Engineers. He resigned from this unit in August 1901, presumably to travel to work in South Africa. Upon his return to Scotland he re-enlisted and served with the Cycle Company of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry from August 1903 until discharged in May 1908.

In 1915, Alexander Robbie Hope travelled to London to enlist and volunteered for war service with the Army Service Corps. He was attested at Grove Park, Lee in on the 11th June for the duration of the war, and was made a Private with the service number MT/106134. At the time his wife, Wilhelmina was four months pregnant with their second child, Sheila, who was born on the 9th November 1915 at the family’s home in Kersewell. Alexander, who gave his address as Kersewell, Carnwath, Lanarkshire was a month short of his 33rd birthday. He was 5’ 9¾” tall, weighed 154lbs and gave his occupation as Motor Driver.

His previous military service obviously stood him in good stead and on the 9th September he was appointed (unpaid) Acting Sergeant. Alexander’s experience with motor vehicles soon saw him attached to the 1st Armoured Motor Brigade (A.M.B.) of the Motor Machine Gun Service and it was with this unit that he travelled to British East Africa, arriving in theatre on the 7th February 1916. This date is confirmed on his Medal Index Card (MIC), however, the theatre given there is noted wrongly as “France”.

Alexander served in East Africa for 15½ months, during which he seemingly distinguished himself with the Machine Gun Corps, gaining a Mention in General Jan Christiaan Smut’s Dispatch of the 22nd November 1916 for “meritorious service in the field” (published in the 2nd Supplement of the 8th February 1917 to the London Gazette of the 6th February 1917).

However, Alexander’s time in East Africa was marred by illness. On the 25th April 1916 he was admitted to hospital in Mbuyuni, Kenya suffering from Dysentery. He was moved on the 1 May 1916 to Voi (also in Kenya) and was not deemed fit enough to return to his unit until the 14th of that month.

Later in the year, on the 27th July, Alexander was promoted to Sergeant with the 1st A.M.B. However, on the 20th November 1916 he was readmitted to hospital, this time in Morogoro, Tanzania, suffering from an undiagnosed illness, which remained undiagnosed even on his discharge on the 2nd December 1916.

The end of his East African service came when, on the 13th January 1917 he was admitted to hospital once again, in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, suffering from Malaria. This third spell in hospital necessitated Alexander’s evacuation from East Africa and he left for Cape Town, South Africa onboard the Hospital Ship “Delta” on the 6th February. From Cape Town he began his transfer to England on the 20th April 1917, finally arriving back in the UK on the 22nd May 1917.

Following his return to England, Alexander was sent home on leave from the 26th May to the 4th June 1917. Then from 10th June 1917 to 28th October 1917 he was employed as Section Sergeant with 27 Mechanical Transport Company, Army Service Corps at Norwood.

Whilst at Norwood, Alexander applied to join the Officer Cadet Unit of the Army Service Corps (Motor Transport Section) with a view to being appointed to a Temporary Commission. This application was accepted on the 25th October 917 and he joined the unit at Grove Park, Lee in London (the place of his enlistment) on the 29th. Following nearly two months with the Cadet Company Alexander was discharged from his service in the ranks at Woolwich Dockyards on the 17th December 1917 having being awarded a Temporary Commission with the Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Section. On his discharge certificate, his commanding officer described his character as “very good, thoroughly efficient and reliable and a competent motor driver”. His Officers papers offer a slightly different perspective on his character. They record that a report from the Cadet Company stated that he “has too much to say and is inclined to be a ‘know all’”.

The information contained in his Officers Papers is limited. They state that he was Commissioned on the 18th December 1917 (Gazetted 17th January 1918) and was at the Army Service Corp Mechanical Transport Reserve Depot at Grove Park, Lee until the end of the month when he was posted to France on the 28th December 1917. He served with a number of Army Service Corps units in France including the 76th Auxiliary (Steam) Company, the 66th Auxiliary (Petrol) Company and the Motor Transport Inspection Unit.

Following the Armistice he stayed in France and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 18th June 1919 (Gazetted 22nd July 1919). He was made Inspector of Mechanical Transport - 3rd Class on the 29th March 1919 (Gazetted 9th October 1919). His papers show he returned home on leave on several occasions during 1919 and 1920. They also show that he was also promoted to the rank of Acting Captain.

At some point after August 1920 (when he is still shown as serving with the ASC in France) he was posted to serve with British Army in Turkey. The only reference in his papers to this posting is the fact that on the 17th August 1923, Temporary Lieutenant Alexander Robbie Hope, Royal Army Service Corps was issued with his Demobilization certificate by Major J. D. Woodall of the D.A.A.G. (Deputy Assistant Adjutant General), Constantinople, HQ Base for the British Forces in Turkey. At the time he was serving with 780 (MT) Company ASC.

He left Constantinople on the 20th September 1923 aboard H.T. “Vedic” and arrived back in the UK at Southampton on the 3rd October and being demobilized the next day, relinquished his Commission and retaining the rank of Lieutenant. He gave his address as 25 Dorothy Road, Clapham, London.

Alexander, like all officers, had to apply for his medals, which he did in late 1923. His entitlement was for the British War Medal and Victory Medal only, both being marked 2 Lt. A. R. Hope. At some point he must have questioned why he hadn’t received the 1915 Star, as his MIC states that he is ineligible for the medal. Alexander must wondered why his service in the ranks with the Army Service Corps from 1915 and the 15 months he spent on active service in East Africa with the 1st A.M.B. (where he was Mentioned in Despatches and became seriously ill) did not entitle him to another award. So, it seems that he simply bought a 1915 Star, had the previous recipient’s details erased and his own neatly engraved on the back, and presumably wore the medal irrespective of his entitlement.

This might have been the last we know of Alexander, however, his Officers Papers contain a number of letters concerning him written after the war. The first was sent to the War Office Records Office in Isleworth, Middlesex on the 5th July 1928 from the Parish of Glasgow Council.

The letter states that in December 1925, Alexander Robbie Hope – then living at 68 Albert Road, Crosshill, Glasgow – deserted his wife and two young children, with the result that in February 1926 they became charges of the Parish. A Sheriff’s Warrant had been subsequently issued for his apprehension on charges of deserting his wife and family.

It appears that in October 1925 Alexander was in partnership with a Mr Norman (an old Army buddy) at 26 Westbourne Grove, Paddington, running a motor engineering business, ‘Hope and Norman’. This was sold in January 1926 and Alexander – who was living at 13 Porchester Road – may have then sailed to Canada along with another woman and three children she had had with him. The Parish was trying to discover if Alexander was entitled to a pension, which might be a way of tracing him.

The Records Office replied on the 14th July 1928 stating that Alexander was not in receipt of a pension and that the last address they had for him was given in February 1924 – 16 Old Mill Road, Plumstead Common, London S.E. The Parish wrote back acknowledging the receipt of this information and recorded that they were now in communication with the Passport office.

Then in March 1938, the Records Office received a further letter concerning the whereabouts of Alexander Robbie Hope. This one was from Alexander’s son, Granville Robbie Hope (who would have been 24 at he time) of Bankhead Road, Glasgow. He too was trying to find out what happened to his father, and having tried - to no end - Somerset House for a possible record of Alexander’s death, was also trying to see if the Army had any current record of him. Again, the Records Office replied, stating that it had no record of Alexander after February 1924. It did not however, indicate the theory that he may have emigrated to Canada in the mid-1920’s.;

Other Notes: MID: LG 8/2/1917 (dated 27/10/1916) Armoured Motor Battery;

END OF RECORD.

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