John Yate Robinson

John Yate Robinson MC was a field hockey player, who won a gold medal with the English team at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

Biography

Born in Catford, son of clergyman the Reverend Edward Cecil Robinson and his wife Edith Isabella, he was educated at Radley College and Merton College, Oxford, where he was awarded his MA in 1912. He was on the Oxford University hockey team from 1905 through 1909, eventually becoming captain. He became a teacher, serving as master at Sherborne School and in Broadstairs, Kent.
He played nine times for England. After Oxford, he played for Sherborne at club level and Dorset at county level.
Robinson became a captain in the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1914, and served at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Cross. He died aged 31 at Roehampton, from wounds he had received in action at El Hannah in Mesopotamia. He was buried at Great Malvern Cemetery, Worcestershire.