Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'Robert was born in Jaffna in Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon at the time) on 20th July 1894, where his father Baxendall was a civil servant. Baxendall was the son of Enoch Constantine, manager to a Bradford wool manufacturer, an Old Bradfordian and a Classical Scholar of St. John’s College,
Cambridge. He entered the Ceylon Civil Service in 1891 and spent much of his life on the island until his retirement in 1935. Robert was the eldest of four children he had with Martha Emsley, the daughter of a Bradford wool manufacturer (was he Enoch’s employer?) By the time of the 1901 census Robert had been sent to England to be educated and was in the care of his mother’s brother George in Horton. This uncle died in 1903 and it is not known where Robert lived next. He went to the Bradford Grammar School in 1906, and for the next six years he would progress through the Classical forms. In the 1911 census he was listed as a ‘guest’ at the house of the Reverend Joseph Beanland, vicar of Wilsden, whose son Joseph was in Robert’s form. Baxendall Constantine may have spent spells on home leave as he was listed on the Register of Electors for Shipley in 1909-10, and in 1915 at 31 Harrogate Road, Eccleshill, which Robert would give as his home address. However, it seems likely that he grew up seeing little of his parents.
Robert left school in 1912 with Higher Certificate passes in five subjects. In his final year at Bradford Grammar he had played for the First XV at fullback—he was said to be good in defence but was slow in attack and needed more practice in catching the ball—and he scored an aggregate of ten runs in four matches for the First XI. After school he studied
Medicine at Leeds University, commencing in October 1912. He joined the University Officer
Training Corps, and he was also a member of Baildon R.U.F.C., as were a number of others from the school, including Harold Field. As both served in the Army Cyclists’ Corps it is possible they shared an interest in cycling. On 4th August 1914, the day Britain declared war, Robert applied to become an officer. He was unsuccessful for some reason so on the 27th he enlisted in the 6th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, as had many Old Bradfordians, Field among them. Robert was aged 20, stood 5 feet 6 1/2 inches tall and weighed 142 pounds. He received his commission on 3rd February 1915, in the 2nd-6th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, which would remain in England for two years. The next part of Robert’s service is ill-documented. Although commissioned into 2nd-6th Battalion he is not in the
photos of officers taken in 1916, nor did he go to France with it in January 1917. In March 1915 Robert was seconded to an unknown unit and held the temporary rank of Lieutenant. In November 1916 he was initiated as a freemason into Cowper and Newton Lodge (Olney), then in February 1917 he was posted to the 1st Corps Cyclist Battalion and finally went to
France.
Although the Corps Cyclists were trained for combat, Robert’s war mostly comprised traffic control, providing guides, burying cables, and in early 1918 labouring on reserve defences. At some point he was promoted to Captain and he briefly stood in for the Adjutant. It was not until the closing weeks of the war that the Corps Cyclists performed their intended role
as part of the advance guard when I Corps followed the German retreat. Following the armistice he remained in France until he went home on leave on 18th February. He told his father he intended to sign on for the Army of Occupation in Germany, but while at home he contracted influenza and meningitis. He died with his brother George in attendance, and was
buried in Scholemoor Cemetery.'