Canon Robson came to St Cyprian's Church in 1905,[2] a Parish still worshiping in a wood and iron church in Jones Street, Kimberley, a structure imported as a prefabricated kit from England in 1879.
Grand plans for a new church had been proposed in a public meeting in 1901, but little progress had been made towards their realisation.
Archdeacon William Arthur Holbech, who had been Rector at the time, had gone on to become Dean of Bloemfontein.
Douglas-Hamilton, was appointed in 1903, encountering an impatient faction within the congregation who additionally were at odds with the Archdeacon's churchmanship – specifically with respect to liturgical practices.
And yet Thomas Claude Robson, presiding over the parish for very nearly three decades, would oversee perhaps the greatest transformation in the history of St Cyprian's: the design of a cathedral; the completion of the first two major phases of this long-term project; and the building up of a mother church for a new and vast diocese.