Background
Robinson was born in Macclesfield, South Australia, the son of William Robinson.
Robinson was born in Macclesfield, South Australia, the son of William Robinson.
He entered the School of Mines and Industries in 1900 to study mining engineering, and combined study for its fellowship diploma (passing eleven subjects with distinction in one year) with his course at the University of Adelaide (Bachelor of Science, 1905). He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship in 1905 (the second from South Australia) to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1908.
He obtained first-class honours (1907) in natural science (geology) and the diploma (1908), with distinction, in forestry (under Sir William Schlich), also representing the university in cricket, athletics and lacrosse. In 1909 Robinson was appointed assistant inspector for forestry at the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, London, and laid the foundations of what was to become an unrivalled knowledge of the forests and forestry of Britain. He was largely responsible for the report which led to the establishment of the Forestry Commission in 1919 and his appointment as its technical commissioner.
He became vice-chairman of the commission in 1929, and chairman in 1932, holding that office until he died.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1918, knighted in 1931 and raised to the peerage as Baron Robinson, of Kielder Forest in the County of Northumberland and of Adelaide in the Commonwealth of Australia, in 1947. Robinson was one of the founders of the Society of Foresters of Great Britain and first president and first recipient of its medal (1947) for eminent services to British forestry.
He was an honorary member (1940) of the Society of American Foresters and the Institute of Foresters of Australia. Corresponding member (1947) of the Académie d"Agriculture de France.
And an honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Aberdeen.
Lord Robinson married Charlotte Marion, daughter of Henry Cust Bradshaw, on 26 November 1910 at Street James" Church, Marylebone, London. He died of pneumonia while attending a conference in Ottawa on 5 September 1952, aged 69. His ashes were scattered in Kielder Forest.