Ronald "Robbie" Edward Robinson, CBE, DFC, FBA (3 September 1920 – 19 June 1999) was a distinguished historian of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

who between 1971 and 1987 held the Beit Professorship of Commonwealth History at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. After schooling at Battersea Grammar School, he proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, as a History Scholar in 1938 and with the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, eventually spending most of his armed service in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. After the end of the war, between 1947 and 1949, Robinson worked on the subject of "trusteeship" for his doctorate at Cambridge. He was subsequently elected a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1949. Robinson's extraordinarily influential work, '' Africa and the Victorians: The Official Mind of Imperialism'', was co-authored with John Gallagher (with the help of his wife Alice Denny) and first published in 1961. The latter work had been preceded by a widely read article – also co-authored with Gallagher – entitled, " The Imperialism of Free Trade". Published in 1953, the latter constitutes a groundbreaking essay among theorists of imperial expansion and "is reputedly the most cited historical article ever published".Wm. Roger Louis, 'Historians I Have Known', ''Perspectives'' (May 2001

Upon Robinson's retirement from Oxford in 1987, a book of essays entitled ''Theory and Practice in the History of European Expansion Overseas'' was published in his honour.

References

External links

Obituary from Kenneth Wilburn of East Carolina University
*''R.E. Robinson'' obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', June 1999 1920 births 1999 deaths Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Historians of the British Empire Imperialism studies Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Beit Professors of Global and Imperial History People educated at Battersea Grammar School 20th-century British historians Fellows of the British Academy Historians of South Asia Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force personnel of World War II {{UK-historian-stub