Henry Russell Robinson (7 May 1920,

Hackney, London Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen ...

- 15 January 1978) was a British military armourer and historian.

Life

He served in the RAF during 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 ...

making models interpreting aerial photographs. This was when he met Sir James Mann, Master of the Armouries at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

. Robinson joined the staff of the Tower Armouries in 1946 as a Temporary Assistant, before rising to Assistant Keeper and finally, in 1970, Keeper of Armour. Robinson was a founder member and president of the ''Arms and Armour Society''. In 1965, he was elected a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

. In 1977, he was awarded an honorary MA by the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick un ...

.Obituary, ''The Times'', 18 January 1978. Between 1967 and 1969, he (a practical

armourer Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. Historically armourers were often men, but women could also undertake the occupation: for example Alice la Haubergere worked as an armourer in Cheapside i ...

) worked with Charles Daniels to interpret and reconstruct the Roman armour nowadays known as ' lorica segmentata'. He produced a series of reconstructions of the two sub-types of armour from the Roman site at

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was k ...

and one from Newstead in time for them to be exhibited at the 1969 Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. His work on the armour featured in one of his best-known books, ''The Armour of Imperial Rome''. Published in 1975 by

Lionel Leventhal Lionel Leventhal is a British publisher of books on military history and related topics, whose eponymous company was established in 1967. History After working in a bookshop (1954–1956), Leventhal joined the publishing company of Herbert Je ...

at the Arms and Armour Press, it included line illustrations by his friend, Peter Connolly. Robinson's system of categorizing Roman helmets has been widely adopted in the UK and USA but never really found favour in Europe. Robinson was not only known for Roman armour, since he worked on an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

Japanese armour Scholars agree that Japanese armour first appeared in the 4th century, with the discovery of the cuirass and basic helmets in graves. During the Heian period (794–1185), the unique Japanese samurai armour ''ō-yoroi'' and ''dō-maru'' appeared. ...

at the Tower Armouries and subsequently wrote two books on the subject. He was also an authority on Native American artefacts and was responsible for the production of the replica of the revised reconstruction of the

Sutton Hoo helmet The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, ship-burial. It was thought to be buried around the years and is widely associated with an Anglo-Saxon leader, King Rædwald ...

and wrote a guide to the

Stibbert Museum The Stibbert Museum () is located on via Frederick Stibbert on the hill of Montughi in Florence, Italy. The museum contains over 36,000 Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, including a vast Collection (museum), collection of armour from Eastern an ...

. In 1978 he teamed up with Ronald Embleton to produce an illustrated booklet entitled ''What the Soldiers Wore on Hadrian's Wall'' for the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

publisher Frank Graham. A second, posthumous, volume by the pair appeared in 1980 from the same publisher and was entitled ''The Armour of the Roman Legions''.Robinson and Embleton 1978; 1980 Robinson was married with two daughters. He died in

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

on 15 January 1978, aged 57.

Notes

References

* Allason-Jones, L. and Bishop, M.C. 1988: ''Excavations at Roman Corbridge: the Hoard'', HBMCE Archaeological Report 7, London. * Fischer, Th. 2014: ''Die Armee der Caesaren : Archäologie und Geschichte'', Pustet, Regensburg * Robinson, H. R. 1965: ''A Short History of Japanese Armour'', Ministry of Public Building and Works, London * Robinson, H. R. 1967: ''Oriental Armour'', Jenkins, London * Robinson, H. R. 1973: ''Il Museo Stibbert a Firenze'', Electa, Milan * Robinson, H. R. and Embleton, R. 1978: ''What the Soldiers Wore on Hadrian's Wall'', Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne * Robinson, H. R. and Embleton, R. 1980: ''The Armour of the Roman Legions'', Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, H. Russell 1920 births 1978 deaths Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London British military historians Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Historians of weapons