Blog

July 4, 1918

My dear Dad,

I know that you shall be glad to hear that I am with my new outfit and well pleased. I’m feeling better than I have felt since arrival over here.

We are out in the country billeted in a small village which would cause the average American to turn pale; but it is better than some I have seen and it is way better than the rice paddies I slept in when out on manouvers in the Philippines.

Sure did hate to leave some of my old pals behind; but shall try my best to make new friends here. I had some very good friends amongst officers and men in the Fifteenth and I know that I can do my duty here as well as I have done it in the past.

So please do not worry about me and you shall surely be surprised to see me when I come home to stay this time. However that time is a long way off and it is not good form to think about the future. The present is what counts and I shall surely do my best to make good and shall stick it out despite the fact that there may be disappointment in store for me.

Do hope that your business keeps on improving and please do not take any bad nickels.

Just my luck that my pen had to run dry, but why sorry over a little thing like that. Liable not to have a pencil to finish with next time.

Remember Dad if I die I want Ida May Zeile to have everything. I send you the very best of wishes.

Lovingly,
Harold

Pvt. 1st cl. Harold Roberts,
Co. A 326 Battalion Tank Corps
311 Tank Center
A.P.O. 714
A.E.F.

Censored by:
H.J. Ellis
1st. Lt. Tank Corps

Read the entire series:

• Part 1 — Searching for Harold Roberts
• Part 2 — Roberts: What We Found
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place

CGS volunteer Dick Rees handles the mail at the society, so it was he who first read McMaster’s request. Dick spearheaded the research efforts of a small group that included Verne Deubler, Nancy Peterson, Vinnie Schwarz and Pat Smith.

William Harold Roberts was the son of John and Elfreda Seifert Roberts, born October 14, 1895, in San Francisco. No official birth record exists because the ledgers were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The team gathered data from all the likely sources and also contacted the Episcopal Diocese Archives, the Lick-Wilmerding High School, the San Francisco Historical Society and the San Francisco Public Library and their Sixth Floor History Center.

But “Look-up” volunteer, Pat Smith, hit pay dirt when she followed the “no stone left unturned” approach and found a listing for William Harold Roberts in the San Francisco probate index.

The estate file includes a typescript of a letter that Roberts wrote to his father on July 4, 1918 from France. After Robert’s death in November of that year, the letter became his last will and testament.

Harold’s letter was started in ink but was finished in pencil when his fountain pen went dry. It was in the closing sentences, in pencil, that Roberts indicated that if he died everything should be left to his father’s sister, Ida May Zeile.

Roberts, who was unmarried, left a war risk insurance policy, probably standard issue by the Army. The “will” was challenged by family members when Harold’s aunt filed for probate in 1924, two years after the death of Roberts’ father. An article from the November 18, 1924, San Francisco Chronicle, “Will of Hero Hit in Court – Relatives Attack Letter Written on Battlefield Leaving Estate” describes charges of forgery and the fight for the money.

Ultimately, Ida was named the executor and Roberts’ $8000 estate was divided among the living relatives.

Read the entire series:

• Part 1 — Searching for Harold Roberts
• Part 3 — Roberts’ Battlefield Letter
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place

The letter to CGS didn’t use these words but the message was clear:
find Corporal Harold W. Roberts.

Periodically the California Genealogical Society and Library receives a research request that morphs into a group project. In this case the letter came from Gary McMaster, director and curator of the Camp Roberts Historical Museum. He was looking for Harold Roberts, the World War I soldier posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, for whom the camp is named.

Camp Roberts is a one-time Army base, now National Guard training facility, off U.S. 101 about half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Originally called Camp Nacimiento, the name was changed even before it became operational during World War II. It is the only U.S. facility named in honor of an enlisted man.

Gary McMaster, Retired Army Sergeant First Class, has been on a mission to find out all he can about Roberts. He first contacted CGS last summer with the letter that said in part:

“We would like to find out about any of his family and try to find out whatever happened to his parents and his Medal of Honor. We also would like to find any photographs of him, as we have none. The large painting we have in his exhibit in the Museum… is an artist’s impression. We would like to know what he actually looked like.”

The Paso Robles Gazette did a story about McMasters and the planned exhibit on Roberts, but no mention was made of the efforts of the research team at the California Genealogical Society. I thought I should set the record straight.

Read the entire series:

• Part 2 — Roberts: What We Found
• Part 3 — Roberts’ Battlefield Letter
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place