The important Victorian K.C.B. group of five awarded to Admiral Sir Robert Robinson, Royal...

The important Victorian K.C.B. group of five awarded to Admiral Sir Robert Robinson, Royal Navy, who was mentioned in despatches and specially promoted to Captain for his services in the Syria operations of 1840, besides being awarded the Turkish Gold Medal, the Order of Nishan el Ifikhar and a presentation sabre from the Sultan of Turkey The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, K.C.B. (Civil) neck badge, 18 carat gold, hallmarked London 1855, and breast star, in silver, with gold and enamel appliqué centre, the reverse engraved ‘R. & S. Garrard & Co., Goldsmiths Jewellers &c. to the Queen, His Royal Highness Prince Albert and all the Royal Family, Panton Street, London’; Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Robert S. Robinson, Commr.); Baltic 1854-55, unnamed as issued; St Jean D’Acre 1840, gold, some light contact marks, otherwise good very fine or better (5) £6,000-£8,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Alan Hall Collection, June 2000. K.C.B. (Civil) London Gazette 7 December 1868. Robert Spencer Robinson was born on 6 January 1809, the third son of Sir John Robinson, Bt., Archdeacon of Armagh, by Mary Anne, second daughter of James Spencer of Rathangan, Kildare, and grandson of William Friend (1715-1866), Dean of Canterbury. He entered the Royal Navy in December 1821 and first saw action as a Midshipman in the boats of H.M.S. Sybille against pirates in the Mediterranean in 1826. Having then passed his examination, he served on the South America station in the Dublin, followed by further appointments in the Mediterranean in the Asia and Tyne. Advanced to Commander in June 1838, he took command of the Hydra in March 1840, in which capacity he distinguished himself in the Syria operations of 1840, gaining advancement to post-rank and the Turkish Order of Nishan el Ifikhar; he was also the recipient of a presentation sabre from the Sultan of Turkey (see Naval Medals 1793-1856, by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris, for further details of these awards). Over the next decade he remained on half-pay but in 1850 he took command of the Arrogant in the Channel Fleet and, in June 1854, he commissioned the Colossus, which formed part of the Fleet in the Baltic and Kronstadt in 1855. Having then served as Captain of the Steam Reserves in Plymouth and Portsmouth, he was advanced to Rear-Admiral in June 1860 and joined a commission to enquire into the management of Royal dockyards. And it was direct from this role, in February 1861, that he was appointed Controller of the Navy, an office which he occupied for the next 10 years. Much has been written about Robinson’s time in office, for it encompassed a vital chapter in the Navy’s transition from wood-built to iron-built ships, in addition to advances in science and design that heralded a swathe of new ordnance, armour and engines, and crucial improvements to dockyards and ship-building. Much of this vital modernisation faced both internal and external opposition, but Robinson remained firm in his convictions and pulled no punches, the defence analyst Edward Luttwak crediting him with a convincing display of ‘amoral navalism’, namely ‘professionals agitating for the enlargement of the force at their disposal without regard for either the constraints imposed by politics and foreign policy - or any other factors for that matter - or the actual menace posed by rival forces.’ Thanks to Robinson’s unorthodox approach, and his keen eye on developments taking place in France and elsewhere, the Royal Navy maintained its domination of the High Seas, and he maintained his assertive approach as a Lord of the Admiralty under Hugh Childers in 1868-71. A well-known Naval contributor to The Times, Robinson also published Results of Admiralty Organisation as Established by Sir James Graham and Mr. Childers (1871). Innovation rarely comes without mishaps, however, a case in point being the loss of the recently launched H.M.S. Captain in September 1870, in a Force 9 to 11 gale off Cape Finisterre. She capsized with a loss of 472 lives, among them the son of H. C. E. Childers, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Childers partly, and unfairly, attributed the Captain’s loss to Robinson, thereby bringing an end to the latter’s term in office at the Admiralty. In addition to his appointment as K.C.B., Robinson was advanced to Vice-Admiral in April 1866 and to Admiral in June 1871. Placed on the Retired List in the following year, he died at his residence in Eaton Place, London on 27 July 1889, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.