Gallipoli bound teen Annabel Lane remembers former Norwood footballer Philip de Quetteville Robin and his lasting legacy

ANNABEL Lane is in Turkey and will spend Anzac Day in Gallipoli after becoming the fifth girl from an Adelaide school in seven years to win the Premier’s Anzac Spirit School Prize.

Norwood footballers: Thomas Victor Storey (left), Philip De Quetteville Robin (kneeling), George Darling Beames, and Brunel John Nash (right), 1st Australian Imperial Force. [B 46130/286a] State Library of South Australia

LORETO College student Annabel Lane is in Turkey and will spend Anzac Day in Gallipoli after becoming the fifth girl from the Marryatville school in seven years to win the Premier’s Anzac Spirit School Prize.

To win the prize, Annabel, 16, of Malvern, did a project on star Norwood footballer Philip de Quetteville Robin.

Robin and fellow 10th Battalion scout Arthur Blackburn made it further up the Gallipoli hills on than any Australian whose name is known.

After landing in the first wave at Anzac Cove, Robin and Blackburn rushed about 3km inland to a hill called Scrubby Knoll.

There they saw hundreds of Turkish troops massing to counter-attack, so they retreated to the main lines then forming about 1km to their rear.

Robin survived the Gallipoli landing only to be killed three days later.

Lance Corporal Philip de Quetteville Robin joined the 10th Battalion on 28 August 1914 and sailed for Egypt on the HMAT Ascanius in October. He was one of several St Peters College old scholars to join the AIF. Phil Robin and Private Arthur Blackburn were in the first landing party at Anzac Cove. As 10th Battalion scouts, they were the first men to scale Scrubby Knoll and advanced further at Gallipoli than any other known soldiers. Pic: supplied

He died just three months after he married Nellie Honeywill in the shadow of the Egyptian pyramids.

Nellie died giving birth to his son on November 19, 1915. The boy died at birth.

Before she left, Annabel met Robin’s nephew, also Phil Robin, who lives in Kent Town.

“Meeting his nephew showed what effect it (his death) had on the family back home,” Annabel said.

“They always talked about Uncle Phil and how he never got to have children.”

Twenty-one other high-schoolers are on the same trip as Annabel.

They left Adelaide on April 17.

Annabel also won the SA Young Historian of the Year award in November last year for her interactive entry in the National History Challenge called A Rose For The Anzacs about the role played by women in the armed conflicts Australia faced in the 20th century.

Originally published as Gallipoli bound teen Annabel Lane remembers former Norwood footballer Philip de Quetteville Robin and his lasting legacy