Person DS/UK/1448 Robinson; Alban (1876-1944); Jesuit Priest Robinson Alban 1876-1944 Jesuit Priest Male Born 26 March 1786, Birmingham. Entered the English Province of the Society of Jesus 7 September 1893. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest 26 July 1909. Final vows in the Society of Jesus 2 February 1911. Died 21 April 1944, Malta.

Alban Robinson was born at Erdington, Birmingham, 26 March 1876, and was baptised at the Abbey church there. On the death of his mother in 1883 the family moved to Liverpool, where his father took the work of a ship’s chandler. Alban made his First Communion at St Francis Xavier’s, Liverpool, on Maundy Thursday, 1886 and in February 1889 began his course at the college. He entered the noviceship 7 September 1893 after securing First Class Honours in the London matriculation. In 1895 he was sent to Ore Place, Canterbury, where the novitiate of the Paris Province then was with Fr G Labrosse as its Master. He returned to Manresa for his vows in September, and after two years’ juniorate went to Jersey for philosophy. But the climate did not suit him, and in February 1898 he joined his contemporaries at the seminary where he completed his course. In 1900 he was appointed to Liverpool where until December of that year he taught Form IV under the influence of Fr John McHale. There followed a bout of scarlet fever with two months in hospital. He returned to the college about the end of February only fit for light health. At the end of the month it was decided to send him to Gozo, Malta, where it was hoped that his health would be completely restored. He arrived in Malta in September 1901, and this was the beginning of a long absence from England. In Gozo he taught Physics and Mathematics, together with English and Geography. He was there until 1906 when he went to Posillipo for theology, being ordained at Naples on the feast of St Anne, 26 July 1909. The same year he joined the Schola Affectus at Florence under the renowned Fr Freidl. During his theology he was the right-hand man of Fr de Bonis, the priest-in-charge of the Gesù, to look after a large sodality of boys and young men, all students of secular Ginnasi. From 1910 to 1913, after his tertianship, Fr Robinson went to British Guiana, as it was then known, and put on the staff of St Stanislaus’ College. It was in July 1911 that he started the scout troop with thirty boys in three patrols. In the following November he received his warrant as scoutmaster of the IV Guiana Troop, and in February 1912 the troop won the Garnet Cup in open competition. Unfortunately for the scouts he was transferred in September of that year to Morawana to relieve Fr Charles Cooksey, and the troop languished. In July 1916 he was moved to Takutu as assistant to Fr Cuthbert Cary-Elwes. After a sharp attack of malaria he moved down to the coast, wintering in Barbados. In November 1918 he felt fit to return to Takutu where he spent the next five years. It was in 1923 that Fr Cary-Elwes’ health broke badly, and Fr Robinson had to get him down to the coast. They left Takutu in October and did not reach Georgetown until the end of January. Fr Robinson was ordered a year’s rest. Two months later he sailed for England en route to Malta, where he was to rest. He arrived in March 1924 and spent the remaining years of his life there. The years 1924 to 1938 were in the main occupied with college activities, though a substantial extra to these was continual supply work for an invalid chaplain. Soon upon arrival he was appointed a Commissioner of the Scouts by the then Governor, Lord Plumer. The following year, 1925, he led a Scout Pilgrimage to Rome for the Holy Year. In 1932 he was publicly presented by the Governor with the Scout’s Medal of Merit. More work began to force itself upon him: he became chaplain of the Blue Nuns, heard confessions in the church at Sarria, did much for English Catholic residents in the island, and army chaplain’s work. In 1928 he was appointed officiating chaplain to a small area with two schools, and four years later he took over the position of Acting Senior Chaplain to the Forces in Malta, a post which he retained, save for a few months, until the war broke out in 1939. Early in 1940 he was granted a commission by the War Office in the Royal Army Chaplain’s Department and officially named Senior Chaplain to the Forces in Malta. Hi schoolroom work continued throughout, but in October 1936 had to be reduced owing to a heart condition. On the outbreak of war I fell to him to put all Catholic Chaplaincy services in the island on to a war footing, a work which taxed him severely. His health was now beginning to fail, and in the year 1941 he felt compelled to resign his commission. The next three years were a time of increasing disability and of great suffering. For twelve months before his death he was completely paralysed and unable to do anything for himself. He died 21 April 1944. Our Dead I, pp. 296-301 International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes CURIA\mallen 07/05/2021 CURIA\mallen 07/05/2021 039530a6-21b6-4cf8-b182-db0732a4f371