Kenneth Ernest Robinson (9 March 1914 – 18 January 2005) was a British civil servant and academic who specialized in colonial and Commonwealth affairs. Robinson was educated at the Sir George Monoux Grammar School and

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

, where he took Firsts in PPE and Modern History. In 1936 he joined the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

, reaching the rank of Assistant Secretary in 1946, before resigning in 1948. That year he succeeded to Margery Perham as Reader in Commonwealth Government at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, becoming a fellow of

Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

at the same time. In 1957, he became the Director of the

Institute of Commonwealth Studies The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, founded in 1949, is the sole postgraduate academic institution in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of the Commonwealth. It is also home to the longest-running interdisciplinary and practice-oriente ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, also serving as one of the first co-editors of the ''Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies'', subsequently '' Commonwealth & Comparative Politics'', from 1961 to 1965. From 1965 to 1972, he served as the Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

. Robinson was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Kenneth 1914 births 2005 deaths Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Civil servants in the Colonial Office British academic administrators Hong Kong justices of the peace 20th-century English historians