Early Life and Family
Bertram Fletcher Robinson (affectionately referred to as either 'Bobbles' or 'Bertie') was born on 22 August 1870 at 80 Rose Lane, Mossley Hill, Liverpool. In early 1882, he relocated with his family to Park Hill House at Ipplepen in Devon. His father, Joseph Fletcher Robinson (1827–1903), was the founder of a general merchant business in Liverpool (c. 1867). Around 1850, Joseph travelled to South America and was befriended by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Thereafter, he fought in the Guerra Grande alongside Garibaldi and the Uruguayans against the Argentine dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas. Robinson's uncle, Sir John Richard Robinson (1828–1903), was the long-time editor-in-chief of the Daily News and a prominent committee member of the Liberal Reform Club.
Bertram Fletcher Robinson was educated at Newton Abbot Proprietary College (1882–1890) and Jesus College, Cambridge (1890–1894). Other notable 'Old Newtonians' include the writer Arthur Quiller-Couch and the explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett. Robinson won three Rugby Football Blues between 1891 and 1893 and, according to his obituary in the Daily Express (22 January 1907), he would have played for England but for an "accident". He also rowed for Jesus College and was a member of the team that won the Thames Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta on 7 July 1892. On 12 February 1894, The Times reported that Robinson was tried for the position of fourth oar with the Cambridge 'Trial Eight' ahead of the fifty-first annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Jesus College awarded Robinson with a Second Class History Tripos Bachelor of Arts degree (1893), Part I of the Law Tripos Bachelor of Arts degree (1894) and a Master of Arts degree (1897). Robinson became a barrister in June 1896 but he never practised that profession.
On 3 June 1902, 31 year-old Robinson married 22 year-old Gladys Hill Morris at St. Barnabas Church, Kensington, London. Gladys was a self-proclaimed 'actress' and a daughter of the noted Victorian artist Philip Richard Morris (1833–1902). The couple had no children of their own. However, the Robinsons acted as godparents to Geraldine Winn Everett, the daughter of Percy Everett.
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