Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/314

 1899, i. 1063; personal knowledge; Royal Society Yearbook, 1901, pp. 202-5; private information.]  ROBINSON, HERCULES GEORGE ROBERT, first  (1824–1897), colonial governor, was the second son of Admiral Hercules Robinson [q. v.] of Rosmead, Westmeath, Ireland, and Frances Elizabeth, only daughter of Henry Widman Wood of Rosmead. His brother, Sir [q. v. Suppl.], was also a successful colonial governor. His uncle, Sir [q. v.], was a judge in Newfoundland. Lord Rosmead was born on 19 Dec. 1824 and was educated at Sandhurst. He joined the army as second lieutenant in the 87th regiment (Royal Irish fusiliers) on 27 Jan. 1843, became first lieutenant on 6 Sept. 1844, but retired in 1846, and accepted an appointment under the commissioners of public works for Ireland, and later under the poor law board. He did special service during the Irish famine of 1848. In 1852 he was appointed chief commissioner to inquire into the fairs and markets of Ireland.

On 3 March 1854 Robinson was appointed to one of those posts which for many years formed the nurseries of colonial governors, viz. that of president of Montserrat in the West Indies: he assumed office on 12 April 1854. This island he left in March 1855, and on 28 March arrived in the neighbouring island of St. Christopher, to which he was promoted as lieutenant-governor. The chief question in St. Christopher at this time was that of immigration from India, and it fell to Robinson to arrange for the introduction of a number of coolies. His brother, William Francis, began his colonial career under him here as superintendent of immigrants. In 1859 Hercules was promoted to be governor of Hong Kong, where he arrived on 9 Sept. 1859, so that he held the government during the war with China in 1860–1. He negotiated with the government of China for the cession of Kowloon, and carried out the arrangements for its annexation. He had also much to do in settling the finances and civil list of the colony. In 1863 he was a member of a commission to inquire into the financial position of the Straits Settlements. In 1865, on the expiration of the ordinary term of government, he went to Ceylon, arriving on 30 March 1865 at Galle, and assuming the government at Colombo the following day. Here he was brought into immediate contact with the question of developing a flourishing crown colony. Railway extension and telegraph construction were among the chief problems of the hour, and in such a colony the judgment of the governor is a leading factor in the final determination of routes and the districts to be served. Robinson reorganised the public works department of the colony on the lines which have made it perhaps the most efficient works department in the colonies. He was on leave of absence in England from August 1868 to May 1869, and finally relinquished the government at the end of his term in January 1872, coming to this country again on leave.

In February 1872 Robinson was gazetted to the government of New South Wales: this promotion to one of the great colonies even at that time showed that he had, in the opinion of the crown, succeeded unusually well in his previous appointments. His record in New South Wales was of course interwoven with the acts of his ministries, the chief of which were led by Sir [q. v. Suppl.] and Sir [q. v.], but Rusden considers that his personal firmness did much towards teaching local politicians that the state came before party interest. He arrived at Sydney on 3 June 1872, and on 13 Aug. first met the local parliament in proroguing it at the end of its ordinary session. The question of border duties as between New South Wales and Victoria and South Australia was one of the chief matters which occupied attention in this and the ensuing year. In the middle of 1874 the case of the bush-ranger Gardiner stirred a good deal of feeling, and the advice of ministers to the governor produced a vote of censure in the new parliament. Otherwise the politics of the period were not eventful. In September 1874, however, Robinson completed a work of national importance by negotiating the cession of the Fiji Islands, and he stayed at Suva administering the new government till the arrival of Sir Arthur Gordon (now Lord Stanmore), the first governor.

On 19 March 1879 Robinson left New South Wales, and on 27 March assumed the governorship of New Zealand, to which he had been previously gazetted. Here he found Sir George Grey's government in power, and a period of commercial depression weighing on the colony [see, Suppl.]; some small troubles with the natives were also pending. Gisborne describes Robinson's regime in this colony as that of a man prudent in counsel and energetic in action, who was still busy gathering materials for his own judgment when his administration was cut short by his transfer, in August 1880, to be governor of the Cape Colony and high commissioner of South Africa. The dual office demands peculiar ability; for the holder has his 