William Henry Robins was born on 1st March 1895 in the rural town of Hailsham in the Weald of Sussex. His father, Samuel William Robins (1863-1923), worked in various mainly agricultural industries, mostly listed as a general labourer, but was recorded as a Matting Weaver in the 1891 Census. His mother, Louisa Duly (1864-1918), did not have an occupation recorded in that Census, but would have been fully occupied with household chores and raising the couple's growing family, eventually reaching eleven children. William was the sixth child and the fourth boy of the family, and following his birth another four boys and one girl were born (see family information here).

By the time of the 1901 Census, showing information as at 31st March 1901, the Robins family were living at an address given as America Cottages, Hailsham. Father Samuel was listed as a General Labourer, and the only other member of the household with a listed occupation was William's 13 year old brother 'Jack' (actually John Frederick Robins) who was recorded as a 'Strong Rope Spinner'.

The youngest of the Robins family children, Violet Annie Alethea Robins was born in Hailsham in 1906, but by the 2nd April 1911 Census, the family were no longer living in Hailsham, having moved to 28 Hereford Street in Brighton, Sussex. Hereford Street was in an area containing some of the worst slum housing, as bad as inner city London or the industrial north of Britain. The street was the birthplace of the comedian Max Miller (Thomas Henry Sargent), who had been born there in 1894. 

William's father Samuel was recorded on the 1911 Census again as a General Labourer, but more information shows he was working in the Furniture Removal industry, as was William's elder brother 'Ernest' (Thomas Ernest Robins). William was by this time a Flower Seller, working on his "Own Account", indicating he was neither working for a trade employer or was employing others.

On 6th February 1915 William began his employment as a Carman with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), probably collecting goods or passengers from the arriving trains on a horse-drawn cart and conveying them around the town. 

In the middle of 1915, William married Brighton-born Clara Ada Windsor, and soon after, on 17th September 1915, their first child, son William Arthur Edward Robins, was born. The couples second child, John Frederick Robins, was born in late 1916.

Possibly as a result of financial hardships from the pregnancy of his wife or the birth of his son John, William was involved in an incident of theft from his employer LB&SCR in late 1916. He was charged with stealing 12 combs, two slides, a bottle of paste, a tin of cocoa and a hair brush with a combined value of 5 shillings. He and his other accused, Thomas Alfred Cross, were dismissed from the company and fined 40 shillings each, or 21 days imprisonment.

William's World War One service records would seem to have been among the millions of documents destroyed by fire at the record office where they were held during a bombing raid in WW2, so it is not possible to establish exactly his enlistment details, but he appears to have served initially with the East Surrey Regiment as a Private with service number 33511. At some stage he transferred to the 14th (Service) Battalion, Welsh Regiment (Swansea), the so-called Swansea Pals, but although it was too early for him to have served with this regiment during its deadly involvement in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he may have been a member for other hard-fought battles. 

William, as 55176 Private Robins, was injured at least twice during the conflict, receiving permission to wear a "Wound Stripe" on 5th October 1917, and a year later on 27th August 1918 he received treatment for a gun shot wound to his right arm sustained at Bazentin-le-Grand in Somme, Picardy during the successful operation to retake the town which had been held by the German army since its advance in April 1918.

Tragedy struck the family only five days before the Armistice ending World War One was signed. Europe and the rest of the World, whilst enduring the mechanised slaughter of the war, was also faced with a greater threat in the guise of 'Spanish Flu', named not because of the origin of the disease, which was actually in Kansas, USA, but because Spain, neutral during the conflict, was freely reporting cases and spread of the disease while other countries were still under military censorship. One of the countless millions to succumb to the deadly disease was 23 month old John Frederick Robins, whose death certificate recorded his cause of death on 6th November 1918 as Influenza and Acute Bronchitis at the family home of 31 Carlton Row, Brighton. Father William was registered as a Railway Shunter in the 14th Welch Fusiliers on the certificate.

After the war, settling back into civilian life, William and Clara had three more children; Joan Clare Violet Robins was born on 1st August 1923, Albert Valentine Robins was born on 14 February 1928 and youngest child Douglas Norman Robins was born on 21st October 1932, all three born in Brighton, Sussex (Details).

By 1939, when a register of the civilian population of the United Kingdom was taken on 29th September 1939 to issue identity cards, administer rationing, and manage conscription and labour direction, the family were living at 9 Elmore Road, Brighton in the new council estate of 'Tarnerland', named after the merchant Edwin Tarner who had a tower built in the late 1800s in the area to watch his merchant ships approaching in the channel, allowing him time to reach London ahead of them. William was by this time working as a Demolition and House Breaker, possibly helping in the slum clearances of the streets in which he formerly lived.

William lived the rest of his life in Brighton, dying at the age of 72 on 30th January 1968.