Philip Stewart Robinson

Philip Stewart Robinson (from around 1889 as Frederick Stennard Robinson) (13 October 1847 – 9 December 1902) and from 18 was an Indian-born British naturalist, journalist and popular author who popularized the genre of humorous Anglo-Indian literature. He was briefly an editor for the Sunday Times. Phil was a brother of E. Kay Robinson who was famous for nurturing Rudyard Kipling and founding the British Naturalists' Association. It has been claimed that his style of writing influenced authors like Edward Hamilton Aitken (Eha). He also worked with the Daily Chronicle and then The Pall Mall Gazette. He was a member of the Savage Club and appointed fourteen of its members into The Sunday Times after becoming its editor.

Robinson married Sarah Elizabeth King in December 1876 and they had a son and a daughter. His wife claimed cruelty, adultery and desertion and was granted a judicial separation. In 1882 he served as a war correspondent for the Daily Chronicle in Egypt and in Sudan from 1885. He was declared bankrupt in 1889 and he changed his name to Frederick Stennard Robinson to evade creditors. From 1893 he lived with Alice Cornwell who took the name of Robinson although they were not married. They had a daughter. He lived at Mortivals in Takeley, Essex. From 1898 he served in Cuba as a correspondent for the Pall Mall Gazette and later the Associated Press during which time he suffered imprisonment. He published little after that and suffered from poor health, possibly from syphilis.

He published several books on life in India that were written in a humorous tone. These works include: Nugae Indicae, or on Leave in my Compound (1871) Second edition as Nugae Indicae. Selected from Zechariah Oriel's Note book. (1873) In my Indian Garden (1878) Under the Punkah (1881) Noah's Ark, or Mornings at the Zoo (1881) Under the Sun (1882) The Poets' Birds (1883) Sinners and Saints : a Tour across the States and round them; with three months among the Mormons (1883) Chasing a Fortune (1884) Tigers at Large (1884) The Valley of Teetotum Trees (1886) Along with his brothers Edward Kay Robinson and Harry Perry Robinson -Tales by Three Brothers (1902)