He was born in Dublin in 1882 to J.J. Robinson, who was Rector of Delgany and later the Dean of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast.

[2] After he qualified he travelled to Canada and during World War I he enlisted in the 19th Alberta Dragoons as a private and was commissioned to the Royal Marine Artillery.

His other cousin, Erskine Childers, used his yacht, the Asgard, to transport guns from Germany to Ireland on behalf of the Irish Volunteers.

[1] He was present in Annamoe, County Wicklow when his cousin, Erskine, was arrested by Free State Troops and taken to Dublin which would result in his court-martial and execution.

[4] Robinson was himself arrested in 1922 and spent forty days on hunger strike during his eighteen months' internment in Mountjoy jail.