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. He enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force on 27 August 1915 as a Private, embarking for active service in Egypt on 31 January 1916 aboard T.S. Wandilla and transferring to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion where he saw service in both Egypt and France. He was wounded in action in May 1917, and was out of the war for much of 1918 due to illness. In April 1919 he joined the AIF Education Service where he worked as a Duty Librarian. He returned to Brisbane in July 1919 and was discharged there with the rank of Sergeant on 27 August 1919. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. 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.