Robert Bagster Wilson Vinter was born at Torpoint on 5 April 1896. He attended Garfield House School, Plymouth, which became Mount House School. In 1909 he was awarded a scholarship to Sherborne and a Gold Medal for Classics, was Secretary of the School Archaeological Society and a member of the Officer Training Corps. Robert was Head of School and Prefect and won the Leweston Prize, Latin Prose Prize, English Essay Prize and English Verse Prose. He was a Scholar-elect of Keble College, Oxford; the College promised to keep the scholarship for him until the war was over.

In February 1915 Robert obtained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders in 1915 and 1916. He was awarded a Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry during an attack on an enemy crater where he led his men to within twenty yards of the crater. Here the attack was held up by intense fire, but with half a dozen men he made good further ground and continued to bomb effectively. On October 30 1916, the Worcestershire Regiment returned to France to relieve the 5th Scottish Rifles. Conditions were so muddy that this exchange took until 2am. Robert and another officer were fatally wounded.

Robert never made it back to take his place at Oxford.  He is commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, Pier, Face 5A and 5C.