Robinson spent much of the 1860s travelling around British Army camps and garrisons distributing bibles, holding prayer meetings and providing games and reading material to the soldiers.
Despite being baptised in the Grove Independent Chapel in Camberwell and her father being a strict Calvinist Robinson's faith was more fluid, affiliating to the Church of England from 1851 and to Presbyterianism from 1866.
[2] Robinson was inspired by reading Julia Wightman's 1860 book Haste to the Rescue, Sarah began visiting the nearby Aldershot Garrison to promote the temperance movement.
[3] Together with Agnes Weston, who led the movement in the navy, she was instructed by the National Temperance League to promote a series of initiatives in the armed forces and campaigned for better accommodation, entertainment and education facilities for the men.
From 1865 to 1873 she travelled widely across garrisons in England, including nine weeks spent camping in Dartmoor observing units on manoeuvres where she set up two marquees selling cheap food and non-alcoholic drinks.
[1][4] One of her canteens was visited by the secretary of state for war and in 1874 the Portsmouth Institute was inspected by Prince George, Duke of Cambridge – the commander-in-chief of the army.
Suffering from a chronic spinal problem, and long warned by doctors in England that she would soon become permanently immobile, she used a steel apparatus that lessened the weight from the spine.
[5] Also, she travelled more than 3,000 miles in a specially constructed coach; ultimately, despite these measures, she was forced to retire for health reasons to Burley, Hampshire, though she remained superintendent of the Institute.