Bertram Fletcher Robinson (22 August 1870 – 21 January 1907) was an English sportsman, barrister, journalist, editor, author and Liberal Unionist Party activist. During his life-time, he wrote at least three hundred items, including a series of short stories that feature a detective called 'Addington Peace'. Following his untimely death at the age of just 36 years, speculation grew that Robinson was the victim of a curse bestowed upon him by an Egyptian antiquity at the British Museum, which he had researched whilst working as a journalist for a British newspaper. However, Robinson is perhaps best remembered for his literary collaborations with his friends and fellow Crimes Club members, Arthur Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse and Max Pemberton.Pemberton, Max. Sixty Years Ago and After, Internet Archive. Retrieved on 9 February 2024. In this 1936 autobiography, which was published by (Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.), Pemberton provides details about his relationship with both Robinson and his uncle, Sir John Richard Robinson around the turn of the 20th century (pp.124–126).
Early life Family Bertram Fletcher Robinson (Aka 'Bobbles' or 'Bertie') was born on 22 August 1870 at 80 Rose Lane, Mossley Hill in Liverpool. During 1882, he relocated with his family to Park Hill House at Ipplepen in Devon.
Robinson's father, Joseph Fletcher Robinson (1827–1903) was the founder of a general merchant business in Liverpool (c. 1867), which is now called Meade-King, Robinson & Company Limited (also known as 'MKR'). Previously, around 1850, Joseph had travelled to South America where he was befriended by Giuseppe Garibaldi and fought alongside him, and the Uruguayans, against the Argentine dictator, Juan Manuel de Rosas in the Guerra Grande.
Robinson's uncle, Sir John Richard Robinson (1828–1903), was the long-time editor-in-chief of the Daily News and also a prominent committee member of the Liberal Reform Club. His friends included James Payn, William Black, Sir Wemyss Reid, George Augustus Sala and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
On 3 June 1902, 31‑year‑old Robinson married 22-year-old Gladys Hill Morris at St. Barnabas Church, Kensington, London. Gladys was an actress and a daughter of the noted Victorian era artist Philip Richard Morris (1833–1902). The Robinsons had no children of their own but they were godparents to Geraldine Winn Everett, the daughter of Sir Percy Everett. 'Winn', as she was affectionately referred to by both family and friends, later worked as a GP in Essex.
Education Between 1882 and 1890, Robinson was schooled at Newton Abbot Proprietary College, which was directed by the headmaster, George Townsend Warner. Robinson was educated alongside Percy Harrison Fawcett who later became a famous explorer of South America. Later, their mutual friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, would use Fawcett's Amazonian field reports as the inspiration for his popular novel, The Lost World."THE LOST CITY OF Z: A TALE OF DEADLY OBSESSION IN THE AMAZON," Kirkus Reviews. (1 Dec. 2008): "The British explorer Percy Fawcett’s exploits in jungles and atop mountains inspired novels such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World".
Between 1890 and 1894, Robinson attended Jesus College, Cambridge, which was directed by the Master, Dr. Henry Arthur Morgan. He studied both History and Law and was awarded a Second Class History Tripos Bachelor of Arts degree (1893), Part I of the Law Tripos Bachelor of Arts degree (1894) and a Master of Arts degree (1898).
During his time as an undergraduate, Robinson won three Rugby Football Blues and, according to his obituary in the Daily Express (22 January 1907), he would have played rugby union for England but for an 'accident'. Robinson also represented his college in cricket and rowing, and was a member of the Jesus College crew, which won the Thames Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta on 7 July 1892. On 12 February 1894, The Times reported that Robinson was trialled for the position of fourth oar with the Cambridge 'Trial Eight' ahead of the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race (The Boat Race 1894).
On 17 June 1896, it was reported within the Council of Legal Education section of The Times newspaper that Robinson had passed the Bar examination. He accepted the resulting call to join the Inner Temple, which made him a qualified Barrister but he never practised this profession.
Writing and editorial career Versatility and output Robinson held editorial positions with The Newtonian (1887–1889), the Granta (1893–1895), Daily Express (July 1900 – May 1904), Vanity Fair (May 1904 – October 1906), The World (journal) (October 1906 – January 1907) and The Gentleman's Magazine (January 1907). He also edited eight books about various sports and pastimes for The Isthmian Library (1897–1901).
Between 1893 and 1907, writing under the pen name of B. Fletcher Robinson, Robinson authored or coauthored at least 44 articles (for 15 different periodicals), 55 short stories, four lyrics, 128 bylined newspaper reports, 24 poems and eight books. He also made contributions to the plots of two Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle (1900-1903) and produced nine satirical playlets, four of which were collaborations with P. G. Wodehouse (1903-1907).
Early work (1893–1903) Between 1893 and 1895, Robinson had one playlet and 12 poems published in the Granta. This periodical was targeted at Cambridge undergraduates but it also reported on matters relating to Trinity College (Dublin) and Oxford University. Granta was founded in 1889 by R. C. Lehmann (who later became a major contributor to Punch and replaced Robinson's uncle as the editor of the Daily News). It provided comment on student politics, news and badinage.
In December 1896, the position of editor at Cassell's Family Magazine passed from the Reverend Henry George Bonavia Hunt to the popular novelist, Max Pemberton. Pemberton had recently edited Robinson's first book titled Rugby Football for The Isthmian Library before relinquishing to him the position of editor. Between March 1897 and April 1900, Robinson wrote 25 items for the Cassell's periodical, which included a series of five articles about the major cities of Europe titled Capitals at Play (January–May 1898), a series of six articles about night-shift workers titled London Night by Night (June–November 1899) and six articles about the British military titled Famous Regiments (December 1899 – May 1900).
In January 1899, Robinson had a non-fictional article titled The Duke's Hounds. A Chat about the Badminton published in Cassell's Magazine (pp. 206–210). This article describes the membership and history of the Gloucestershire Hunt and it is illustrated throughout with photographs. Both Robinson and his father, were members of the South Devon Hunt and Dart Vale Harriers until 1895.
In July 1899, the first of Robinson's 55 short stories titled Black Magic: The Story of the Spanish Don was published in the renamed Cassell's Magazine. This story is illustrated by F. H. Townsend and it is told in the first-person narrative by an old Sailor to an educated gentleman in a pub overlooking a Cornish harbour. The narrator recalls meeting a strange Spanish-speaking passenger (the ‘Don’), aboard a trading brig, during a voyage to Africa around 1856. It transpires that the Don has recently murdered his friend for gold. The Don becomes convinced that the murdered man has possessed a shark, which is following the ship and is intent on exacting revenge against him. References to nautical terms, kerosene and palm-oil, suggest that Robinson may have adapted this story from tales told to him by his father.
In March 1900, Robinson had an item titled A True Story (Wherein all golfers may learn something to their advantage), published in Pearson's Magazine. This periodical was owned by the British newspaper magnate and publisher, Cyril Arthur Pearson. It appears that Pearson admired Robinson's ongoing series of articles about the British military in Cassell's Magazine because during the Spring of 1900, he recruited Robinson to work as his chief war correspondent for his new daily newspaper, the Daily Express. Launched on 24 April 1900, this tabloid was the first British daily newspaper to put news on the front page. Robinson's first assignment was to travel to South Africa to report on the Second Boer War and between 4 May and 30 June 1900, he had 13 related dispatches published in the Daily Express. Once again, Pearson appeared impressed because he recalled Robinson to London and promoted him to the position of ‘Day Editor’ of the Daily Express.
In July 1900, Robinson and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, 'cemented' their friendship while they were aboard a passenger ship that was travelling to Southampton from Cape Town. The following year, Robinson told Doyle legends of ghostly hounds, recounted the supernatural tale of Squire Richard Cabell III and showed him around grimly atmospheric Dartmoor. The pair had previously agreed to co-author a Devon-based story but in the end, their collaboration led only to Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, which was first published in book form by George Newnes Ltd on 25 March 1902. Robinson himself was content to concede that his part in this collaboration was restricted to that of an ‘assistant plot producer’. Befittingly, Doyle wrote the following acknowledgement note, which featured within the first of nine monthly instalments of this story, when it commenced serialisation in The Strand Magazine from August 1901:
Between December 1902 and August 1903, The Windsor Magazine published seven short stories of adventure fiction by Robinson and Malcolm Fraser, under the collective title of The Trail of the Dead: The Strange Experience of Dr. Robert Harland. In February 1904, six of these stories were republished in a book titled The Trail of the Dead (Ward, Lock & Co.), which is illustrated by Adolf Thiede. During 1998, the seventh story, titled 'Fog Bound', was republished as 'Fogbound' in a compendium of short stories, which was edited by Jack Adrian and titled Twelve Tales of Murder. In April 2009, all seven tales were included and republished in a book titled Aside Arthur Conan Doyle: Twenty Original Tales by Bertram Fletcher Robinson, which was compiled by Paul Spiring.
During 1903, Robinson also contributed an idea to the plot of a second Sherlock Holmes short story, The Adventure of the Norwood Builder. This is one of the very few Holmes stories in which a fingerprint provides a good clue to the nature of the problem. The pivotal wax thumbprint reproduction idea was devised by Robinson, and Doyle paid him a fee of £50 () for the use of it. The story was first published in Collier's (US) on 31 October 1903 and in The Strand Magazine (UK) in November 1903, and it also features as the second tale in the 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories titled The Return of Sherlock Holmes.Stock, Randall. , The Baker Street Irregulars. retrieved on 10 February 2024. This article features in the Baker Street Irregulars' manuscript series (A Masterpiece of Villainy, 2021), and it quotes from a letter by H. G. Michelmore, which was published in the Western Morning News, 7 Feb 1949).