Henry Russell Robinson (7 May 1920,

Hackney, London Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen E ...

- 15 January 1978) was a British military armourer and historian.

Life

He served in the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

making models interpreting

aerial photographs Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...

. This was when he met Sir James Mann,

Master of the Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of Weapons, arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of Lond ...

at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. Robinson joined the staff of the Tower Armouries in 1946 as a Temporary Assistant, before rising to Assistant Keeper and finally, in 1970, Keeper of Armour. Robinson was a founder member and president of the ''Arms and Armour Society''. In 1965, he was elected a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

. In 1977, he was awarded an honorary MA by the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick univer ...

.Obituary, ''The Times'', 18 January 1978. Between 1967 and 1969, he (a practical

armourer Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. In modern terms, an armourer is a member of a military or police force who works in an armoury and maintains and repairs small arms and weapons systems, wi ...

) worked with Charles Daniels to interpret and reconstruct the Roman armour nowadays known as '

lorica segmentata The ''lorica segmentata'' (), also called ''lorica lamminata'' (see §Name), is a type of personal armour that was used by soldiers of the Roman army, consisting of metal strips fashioned into circular bands, fastened to internal leather strap ...

'. He produced a series of reconstructions of the two sub-types of armour from the Roman site at

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was known to the Romans as something like ''Corstopitum'' or ''Coriosopit ...

and one from Newstead in time for them to be exhibited at the 1969 Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. His work on the armour featured in one of his best-known books, ''The Armour of Imperial Rome''. Published in 1975 by

Lionel Leventhal Lionel Leventhal is a British publisher of books on military history and related topics, whose eponymous company was established in 1967. History After working in a bookshop (1954–1956), Leventhal joined the publishing company of Herbert Jenk ...

at the Arms and Armour Press, it included line illustrations by his friend,

Peter Connolly Peter William Connolly FSA (8 May 1935 – 2 May 2012) was a British scholar of the ancient world, Greek and Roman military equipment historian, reconstructional archaeologist and illustrator. He was a regular contributor to such periodicals as ...

. Robinson's system of categorizing Roman helmets has been widely adopted in the UK and USA but never really found favour in Europe. Robinson was not only known for Roman armour, since he worked on an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

Japanese armour Scholars agree that Japanese armour first appeared in the 4th century, with the discovery of the cuirass and basic helmets in graves. During the ''Heian period'' (794-1185), the unique Japanese samurai armour ''ō-yoroi'' and ''dō-maru'' appea ...

at the Tower Armouries and subsequently wrote two books on the subject. He was also an authority on Native American artefacts and was responsible for the production of the replica of the revised reconstruction of the

Sutton Hoo Helmet The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. It was buried around 625 and is widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration may have giv ...

and wrote a guide to the

Stibbert Museum The Stibbert Museum ( it, Museo Stibbert) is located on via Frederick Stibbert on the hill of Montughi in Florence, Italy. The museum contains over 36,000 artifacts, including a vast collection of armour from Eastern and Western civilizations. ...

. In 1978 he teamed up with Ronald Embleton to produce an illustrated booklet entitled ''What the Soldiers Wore on Hadrian's Wall'' for the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

publisher Frank Graham. A second, posthumous, volume by the pair appeared in 1980 from the same publisher and was entitled ''The Armour of the Roman Legions''.Robinson and Embleton 1978; 1980 Robinson was married with two daughters. He died in

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

on 15 January 1978, aged 57.

Notes

References

* Allason-Jones, L. and Bishop, M.C. 1988: ''Excavations at Roman Corbridge: the Hoard'', HBMCE Archaeological Report 7, London. * Fischer, Th. 2014: ''Die Armee der Caesaren : Archäologie und Geschichte'', Pustet, Regensburg * Robinson, H. R. 1965: ''A Short History of Japanese Armour'', Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, London * Robinson, H. R. 1967: ''Oriental Armour'', Jenkins, London * Robinson, H. R. 1973: ''Il Museo Stibbert a Firenze'', Electa, Milan * Robinson, H. R. and Embleton, R. 1978: ''What the Soldiers Wore on Hadrian's Wall'', Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne * Robinson, H. R. and Embleton, R. 1980: ''The Armour of the Roman Legions'', Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, H. Russell 1920 births 1978 deaths Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London British military historians Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Historians of weapons