Ellis Robins, 1st Baron Robins

Robins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States;[1] the son of Major Robert Patterson Robins, a medical doctor, and Mary Routh Ellis, daughter of Thomas de la Roche Ellis, of Elliston, Louisiana.

He was educated at the Bight School, Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania,[2] where he was a member of the Philomathean Society,[3] and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was the first Rhodes scholar.

[2] After a year at Oxford, Robins went to Africa where he joined the British South Africa Company, the company established by Cecil Rhodes, and was entrusted with several important posts in Rhodesia.

He fought with the City of London Yeomanry in Egypt, Gallipoli and Palestine during the First World War, was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) the following year[8] and was raised to the peerage as Baron Robins, of Rhodesia and Chelsea in the County of London, in 1958.