ROSMEAD, HERCULES GEORGE ROBERT ROB INSON, IST BARON British colonial administrator, was born on Dec. 19, 1824. He was of Irish descent on both sides; his father was Admiral Hercules Robinson, his mother a Miss Wood of Rosmead, County Westmeath, from which he after wards took his title. Passing from Sandhurst into the 87th Foot, he attained the rank of captain; but in 1846, through the influence of Lord Naas, he obtained a post in the Board of Public Works in Ireland, and subsequently became chief commissioner of fairs and markets. His energy in these positions, notably during the famine of 1848, and the clearness and vigour of his reports, secured for him at the age of 3o the office of president of the island of Montserrat. He was governor of St. Christopher from 1855 to 1859, when he was knighted in recognition of his services in introducing coolie labour into the island. Subsequently he was governor of Hong-Kong, of Ceylon (K.C.M.G. in 1869), and, in 1872, of New South Wales. It fell to his lot to annex the Fiji islands to the British empire, and his services were rewarded in 1875 by promotion to G.C.M.G.
In 1879 he was transferred to New Zealand, and in 188o he succeeded Sir Bartle Frere as high commissioner of South Africa.
He arrived in South Africa shortly before the disaster of Majuba, and was one of the commissioners for negotiating a peace which was personally distasteful to him. It left him with the task of conciliating on the one hand a Dutch party elated with victory, and on the other hand a British party almost ready to despair of the British connection. He was called home in 1883 to advise the Government on the terms of the new convention concluded with the Transvaal Boers in Feb. 1884. On his return to South Africa he found that a critical situation had arisen in Bechuanaland, where Boer commandoes had seized large tracts of territory and proclaimed the "republics" of Stella and Goshen (see KRUGER, S.J.P.). They refused to retire within the limits of the Transvaal as defined by the new convention, and Robinson, alive to the necessity of preserving this country—the main road to the north , —for Great Britain, took action which led to the expedition of Sir Charles Warren and the annexation of Bechuanaland early in 1885. Robinson won Kruger's confidence by his fair-mindedness,
while he seconded Rhodes's efforts to unite the British and Dutch parties in Cape Colony. His mind, however, was that of the admin istrator as distinguished from the' statesman, and he was content to settle difficulties as they arose. In 1887 Robinson was induced by Rhodes to give his consent to the conclusion of a treaty with Lobengula which secured British rights in Matabele and Mashona lands. In May 1889 Robinson retired. In his farewell speech he declared that there was no permanent place in South Africa for direct imperial rule. This was interpreted to mean that South Africa must ultimately become independent—an idea repugnant to him. He explained in a letter to The Times in 1895 that he had referred to the "direct rule of Downing Street over the Crown colonies, as contrasted with responsible colonial Government." He was made a baronet in 1891.
Early in 1895, when he had entered his 71st year and was not in robust health, he yielded to Lord Rosebery's entreaties, and went out again to South Africa, in succession to Sir H. Loch. The Jameson raid produced a permanent estrangement between him and Cecil Rhodes, and he was out of sympathy with the new colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, who had criticized his appointment, and now desired Robinson to take this opportunity of settling the whole question of the position of the Uitlanders in the Transvaal. Robinson answered that the moment was inoppor tune, and that he must be left to choose his own time. Alarmed at the imminent danger of war, he confined his efforts to inducing the Johannesburgers to lay down their arms on condition that the raiders' lives were spared, not knowing that these terms had already been granted to Jameson. He came home to confer with the Government, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Rosmead. He returned to South Africa later in the year, but was compelled by ill-health, in April 1897, to quit his post, and died in London on Oct. 28, 1897.