Robinson , William , 1838-1935 , gardener

William Robinson was born on 5 Jul 1838 in Ireland, the son of William and Catherine Robinson. He began his career as a garden boy at the Marquess of Waterford’s estate at Curraghmore, County Waterford, and subsequently worked at Sir Hunt Johnson-Walsh’s estate at Ballykilcavan as foreman gardener. He left in 1861 under circumstances that are disputed, and made his way back to the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin. With the encouragement of David Moore, the curator, he went to London, and in 1862 took a letter of introduction from Moore to Robert Marnock, who ran the Royal Botanic Society’s garden in Regent’s Park, where he spent four years. He rapidly became foreman of the educational and herbaceous departments, and began travelling to other gardens and nurseries in the United Kingdom, in an attempt to increase the number and range of plants at Regent’s Park. By 1864 plants were coming in from many sources, and Robinson, now ‘the Society’s gardener’ (head gardener), had embarked on an ambitious programme of improvements to the garden. He started contributing articles to ‘The Gardeners’ Chronicle’, describing his tours around the country and the different gardens he visited, and in 1866, having recently been elected Fellow of the Linnean Society, he resigned his post at Regent’s Park in order to devote himself to studying horticulture full-time. With commissions from various gardening journals he was able to travel extensively in Europe, travels that provided copy for numerous articles and two books.

From 1868 Robinson lived in a house in Kensington, which he used as a base from which to write and travel, including to the United States. He published further books in the early 1870s including ‘The Wild Garden’ and in 1871 he founded ‘The Garden’, an illustrated weekly publication which he was to edit for 28 years, and own for nearly 50. He launched a number of other journals on specialised aspects of horticulture, mostly relatively shortlived, but including ‘Gardening’ (later ‘Gardening Illustrated’). In 1883 Robinson published his most important book, ‘The English Flower Garden’. He was vehemently opposed to the Victorian taste for garishly coloured flowers in garden displays, and through his advocacy of a more natural way of gardening is credited with having invented the English cottage garden style of planting.

Robinson’s opinions on wider issues are reflected in his correspondence. He was an advocate of cremation, and actively protested against what he regarded as unfair taxes imposed by the Government of the day. In 1885 he bought and moved to Gravetye Manor, in Sussex, an Elizabethan manor house with extensive grounds. Robinson altered the house and redesigned the garden according to his own taste, writing about the work in a series of books about Gravetye. Though paralysed after an accident in 1909, he remained as active as his wheelchair existence permitted, assisted by his staff, in particular his nurse, Mary Gilpin. In 1917 he wrote his last book ‘My Wood Fires and Their Story’, and only in 1919 aged 81 finally gave up his interests in ‘The Garden’ and ‘Gardening Illustrated’. He died at Gravetye Manor on 12 May 1935.

Source: biographical notes based on the entry for William Robinson in the 'Oxford Dictionary of National Biography', ‘William Robinson: The Wild Gardener’ / by Richard Bisgrove, and ‘William Robinson 1838-1935: Father of the English Flower Garden’ / by Mea Allan.