Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

13 The early life of Lionel Robinson Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Fittingly, he became the first Prime Minister of Australia. 9 In 1859 Harriet married Dr Alexander Salmon, by whom she had one surviving daughter; for reasons that remain unclear he decamped sans wife to South Africa in 1863-4 and perished in 1866. She travelled to Ceylon where she met Anthony Robinson and they became an ‘item’ but it remains a mystery why they did not get married in Melbourne until 1869, after the birth of their second son, Frederick Farquhar (1868- 1953). In Victorian times ‘living under the brush’ was very much frowned upon and, if Anthony was as devout a Christian as his son William remembers, it must have been an awkward situation for him morally. 10 Michael hypothesises that proof of Dr Salmon’s death might have been hard to obtain and that Harriet was therefore afraid of being jailed as a bigamist before she was absolutely certain of her status as a widow. Following the eventual celebration of their marriage, which can be said to have ‘legitimised’ or ‘legitimated’ young Lionel, Anthony and Harriet had three further sons, and all five were raised in Melbourne. All Anthony’s sons achieved prominence in commerce or in public life: apart from Lionel himself, Frederick Farquhar, Gerald Henry (1873-1961) and especially William Sydney (1876-1963) 11 were all successful businessmen while Arthur (1872-1945) became Attorney General for Victoria after a career as a solicitor, often acting for Collins House, and was eventually knighted. When he finally settled down to family life in Australia, Anthony took a job with the merchant firm of James Henty & Co. before taking up journalism; he wrote on financial matters for the Daily Telegraph and the Herald . He subsequently became commercial editor of the Melbourne Age under A.L. Windsor in 1876, where he was succeeded by his youngest son, W.S., in 1900 (see below). When Anthony retired, Lionel provided him with a ‘family’ pension of £250 a year, which allowed his father to live comfortably for the rest of his life. That Lionel was a dutiful, loving son can be seen in the letter dating to March 1897. The reference to ‘Ella’s grave’ relates to his sister, the baby of the family, who had died of typhoid fever the previous year when aged only 18. Schooling and marriage Lionel Robinson was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, between 1879 and 1881. He was a highly promising pupil, winning the prize given by the late Hon Robert Simson for the best scholar in the school under 14 years. In 1880 he was dux of his class, winning a special prize given by Mr E.A.Wynne, but often found himself bested by a contemporary, John Monash, who was later commander of the Australian forces in the Great War. In 1881 he passed his matriculation examination in nine subjects, 9 Michael Robinson is in no doubt that Lionel would have capitalised on the political connections of his family when making his way in the business world of the ‘old country’. 10 Things might have been made even more awkward by the fact that Salmon’s father was a Free Presbyterian minister. 11 William was almost universally known as ‘W.S.’ and he will be referred to as such.