Glenn enlisted at Grantham to the Junior Leaders Regiment RAC in August 1975.
He joined his regiment the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars in 1976 at Paderborn in Germany, and except for a period from June 1985 to January 1988 as aircrew with 1 Regiment Army Air Corps he served with QRIH throughout.
Glenn met and eventually married Claire on 10 October 1981, they had two children, Matthew and Rachael. An appreciation by a close friend follows from this short history.
After completion of training at the Junior Leaders Regiment in Bovington, Glenn ‘Robbo’ Robinson joined the QRIH at Barker Barracks, Paderborn in mid-1976 and was posted to B Squadron.
When I arrived in late 1976, Glenn was one of the first to warmly welcome me into the Squadron, an act that earned him my eternal gratitude. My overriding memory of Glenn is that of a hugely enthusiastic and fiercely competitive tank soldier who would hurl himself into every task.
Loading the main armament on ranges would almost always result in a trip to the Squadron medic in order for Glenn, with his inevitable broad grin and obvious pride in his wounds, to have his hands bandaged yet again.
He loved being out on exercise and where the rest of us might have been heard to breathe a small sigh of relief when the sudden demise of our Chieftain tanks brought a short period of respite from the ‘war’, Glenn treated breakdowns as a personal insult and would work tirelessly to repair his vehicle.
When off duty, Glenn’s passion, shared with his father and brother, was motorcycles and he spent much of his time riding around Germany and the UK on a succession of high-powered machines.
It was inevitable that someone with Glenn’s boundless energy and appetite for excitement would become bored with the routine of armoured corps soldiering during the Cold War era, and in 1985 he left the Regiment to go on an aircrew attachment to the Army Air Corps. Flying suited Glenn’s temperament perfectly and there then followed a highly enjoyable and successful tour.
He rejoined the Regiment at Catterick in 1988 where he was placed in charge of FFR Troop. When the time came for the Regiment to move to Fallingbostel, Glenn and Claire made the decision that he would leave the Army and pursue a career in the police force.
The Robinson family moved to Harrogate and, following training and probation, Glenn joined the Traffic Division of the Harrogate Police. Speeding around the roads of Yorkshire in a police car was the perfect job for Glenn and he thoroughly enjoyed his new career.
Glenn Robinson died on 27 July 2005, when on the way home from his duties the motorcycle he was riding was struck by a car.
He was a passionate man with a great love of life and his loss will be deeply felt by the many people who had the privilege of having him as a friend.
