Patsy Robertson

Career Patsy Robertson (née Pyne) was born in the Malvern district of Saint Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, the fifth child of eight. She worked briefly as a newspaper journalist in Jamaica before going to the US and attending New York University (where her circle included James Baldwin), graduating with a liberal arts degree.

During the 1960s she was involved with the anti-apartheid movement, and having left the Jamaican diplomatic service she joined the Commonwealth Secretariat on its establishment in 1965, She was present at the 1978 conference of Commonwealth non-governmental organisations in Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, that led to the foundation of the Commonwealth Journalists' Association, and would remain, in the words of Lord Black of Brentwood, chairman of the CPU Media Trust, "throughout her lifetime and her distinguished career, a doughty champion of press freedom".

She served as the Secretariat's Director of Information and the Official Spokesperson for The Commonwealth at international conventions, including Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings, from 1983 to 1994.

After Robertson left the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1994, she joined the United Nations (UN) in the role of senior media adviser to the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in 1995,

In 2007 she was appointed chair of the Ramphal Institute – which was founded as the Ramphal Centre for Commonwealth Policy Studies and formally launched at Marlborough House in 2008 at a celebration to mark the 80th birthday of Sir Shridath Ramphal, Commonwealth Secretary-General from 1975 to 1990 – a post she would hold until the time of her death. a small charity founded in 1994 by her friend Pamela Beshoff, dedicated to "the noble task of preserving Jamaica's history and heritage" by conserving and promoting awareness of the island's historic structures. In 2015 the Policy Institute at King's College London announced her appointment as a visiting professor. "presented to an individual who has demonstrated long and tireless service to one or more Commonwealth institutions". According to former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Patsy Robertson was "a true symbol of the modern Commonwealth who served the organization with passion and unflinching dedication", who worked "with singular fervor to support its structures, and who never minced words in criticizing actions or pronouncements by governments that she perceived as undermining the principles and values that animate the modern Commonwealth."

Personal life She was married to Calum Robertson, who predeceased her. She had three children: John, Sarah and Neil.