Richard Robbins

Richard Robbins (12 July 1927 – 28 July 2009) was a British artist, sculptor and art teacher, who ended his career as Head of Fine Art at Middlesex University.

Early life Robbins was born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, in 1927. His parents were the economist Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) and his wife Iris (née Gardiner) (1896–1997). Robbins was born on the day that his father was elected a Fellow of New College, Oxford. His father became a life peer in 1958, rendering Robbins The Hon, which was a title he loathed and never used. He had an older sister, Anne, who would go on to marry the economist and journalist Christopher Johnson.

He attended King Alfred and University College Schools in London and, during World War II, New College School in Oxford and Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire. He was sent to Dauntsey's, known for its art teaching, having expressed a view at the age of seven that “I want to be a painter”. the Ruskin School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. Works are also held by New College, Oxford, University of Stirling, Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution, Lyme Regis Museum, the University of Middlesex, and the Whittington Hospital.

In 2004 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

Personal life Robbins married Wendy Dobbs in 1952; the marriage ended in divorce. He married secondly, in 1961, Brenda Roberts, who had four sons of her own. Golf was a constant throughout Robbins's life. With a handicap of one he was much in demand as a golf partner for his regimental officers. He held an Oxford Blue in golf. For many years he was Captain of Hampstead Golf Club. Robbins died in 2009, aged 82, from leukaemia.