Herbert Robinson

Herbert Freemont Robinson (20 May 1893 – 3 June 1969) was an Australian politician, and a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1953 until 1957 representing the seat of Sandgate.

Early life Robinson was born on 20 May 1893 in Comet, Queensland, to Philip Robinson, a school teacher, and his wife Lucy (née Mann). He was educated at Comet State School and subsequently taught as a pupil-teacher. As a youth he played rugby league for Toowoomba and Ipswich. By 1915, he was working as a railway porter in Toowoomba.

Robinson worked variously in the railways of Queensland for much of his life. He was a porter in Wyreema, Maryborough and Gympie over 1919–1920, and a shunter in Ipswich and Bundamba until 1925. While working in Ipswich, he married Agnes Doran on 14 July 1924, with whom he has two sons and three daughters. From 1925 until 1942, Robinson was employed as a guard on the Kingaroy line, and then became a first-class guard at Shorncliffe in 1942, and moved his family to nearby Sandgate.

On 24 April 1957, Queensland Premier Vince Gair was expelled from the Labor Party, and a number of mostly Catholic Labor MPs joined him in forming a new Queensland Labor Party, with Robinson joining on 26 April 1957. Robinson lost at the subsequent state election on 3 August 1957 to Liberal candidate Thomas Ahearn.