John Robin Blacker was the second son of Carlos and Caroline (née Frost) Blacker. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, in 1897. His father Carlos, was a man of independent means who had chosen to live on the continent after a falling out with his friend the Duke of Newcastle, who had accused him of cheating at cards. The charge was unfounded but being put in a position of being forced to sue his friend for libel - failure to do so being seen as an admission of guilt and not wanting to put himself through the ordeal, Carlos chose to take his family and live in self-imposed exile abroad. The Duke of Newcastle later apologised and the friendship renewed. To Robin, Newcastle was always 'Uncle Linny' a man he adored.When Robin was eight months old the Blackers moved to France, where they resided in Versailles until 1906 when they settled in Torquay, England. Educated firstly at Cothill Preparatory school in Oxfordshire and then Osborne Naval College on the Isle of Wight, where Robin was forced to give up the prospect of a glittering career in the Royal Navy after it was discovered he was short sighted and needed to wear spectacles. He left Osborne as a Cadet Captain and joined his elder brother Pip at Eton, where he excelled academically as well as on the sports field. In July 1914 Robin sat the Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate and was planning to go to Balliol College, Oxford, to read History after leaving Eton, possibly looking at a career with the Foreign Office. Unfortunately the war intervened and instead of finishing his schooling before going up to Oxford, he took a slight diversion and got himself a Commission in to the Rifle Brigade in May 1915. Being under-age, his unit went out to France without him - they were virtually wiped out within days of arriving. Robin was distraught at not having been with 'his men' and pushed for a transfer to the 1st battalion Coldstream Guards, which was completed in August. With the heavy hearted consent of his father, Robin was sent with his battalion to France, arriving mid August. By the end of September he was dead - killed at the battle of Loos on 28th September 1915. Eton had kept Robin's name on their books, hoping he would return to finish his education sometime in the near future - possibly after Christmas.Throughout his schooling and army life, Robin, his brother Pip and their parents kept up a regular written correspondence. This book is written from original letters, diaries and memoirs of the Blacker family. After Robin's death the harrowing correspondence between Robin's parents and his elder brother, Pip, who is also serving in the Coldstream Guards, describe their desperate search to find out how he was killed and where his body now lay, in hope of one day, after the war, finding and visiting his final resting place. They wrote to the men of the South Wales Borderers who had found his body and played a part in his burial party, two weeks after his death and interred his remains in a hasty battlefield burial. Decades after his parents death, Robin's nephew and I began a new search and aided by fate or fortune we made an amazing discovery. Robin's life, death and its aftermath strangely mirror that of 2nd Lieut. John Kipling, the son of the author Rudyard Kipling, who was also killed near the Chalk Pits at Loos, like Robin, but 24 hours earlier. The main body of the book focuses on the war and the work done afterwards in discovering the true burial spot where Robin now lies.The book contains detailed accounts of daily life and the people he came across at Cothill, Osborne, Eton and with the Rifle Brigade and Coldstream Guards. Confidential military reports and detailed first hand descriptions of the battle of Loos, from fellow officers of the Coldstream Guards. Also numerous photographs, including two taken by George Bernard Shaw and one by Constance Wilde, both close personal friends of the Blackers.