Born 23 December 1859 at Croft House, Stanhope in Weardale, Durham, the son of Richardson Robinson, the local builder, and his wife, who was of Scotch descent and Huguenot extraction. Educated at the Barrington Village School and at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Modern School, he entered the University of Durham at the age of sixteen with the University scholarship, after examination in mathematics, Greek, Latin, and English. Here he won the Tulloch scholarship in 1879, and the Gibb, Charlton, and Dickinson scholarships in 1881. He graduated MD in 1884, with the gold medal for his thesis on goitre. As a student at the University of Durham College of Medicine in Newcastle he acted successively as prosector, demonstrator of anatomy and curator of the museum. On 1 August 1881 he entered into partnership at Stanhope in Weardale with Charles J Arnison, LSA, MRCS, and JP. The village was chiefly occupied by men working in the neighbouring lead mines, tuberculosis was frequent, and in 1888 Robinson was instrumental in establishing for their relief a Friendly Societies' Convalescent Home at Grange-over-Sands. He practised at Stanhope until January 1894, when he moved to Sunderland on joining Edwin Allan Maling, MRCS 1861, LSA, to fill the vacancy caused by the unexpected death of John Whitehouse, FRCS. In November 1894 he was elected physician to the Sunderland Royal Infirmary, as the surgeon had been appointed for life and there was no prospect of an immediate vacancy. He held the office of physician until 1905, when he resigned on his election as surgeon to the charity. From 1895 until 1919, when he became consulting surgeon, he was attached to the Sunderland Eye Infirmary and saw it grow from a small hospital, founded in 1836, into the Sir John Priestman Durham County and Sunderland Eye Infirmary. During the war Robinson received a commission, dated 1 May 1917, as major, RAMC, and was appointed surgical specialist to the Sunderland War Hospital and to the Ashburton Red Cross Hospital. He was at one time president of the Northumberland and Durham Medical Society, and president of the North of England branch of the British Medical Association. He married on 2 April 1884 Eleanor, eldest daughter of Valentine Rippon, JP, of Rogerley Hall, Frosterley, and by her had three sons and. a daughter. Mrs Robinson's sister married John Waldy, FRCS. All three sons, G S, W V, and V P Robinson, graduated in medicine at Oxford, and his daughter married Dr John Grey, who succeeded to the Arnison and Robinson practice at Stanhope. William Robinson died at Stanhope on 9 October 1940. He left £500 to the Newcastle School of Medicine. Robinson was a typical north countryman: alert, well read, and widely travelled. He used his abilities to the best advantage of himself and of the medical profession in the locality where he practised. Somewhat above middle height, of a pleasant expression and genial manners, he soon obtained the chief practice in Sunderland. Publications: Bottle blowers' cataract. *Brit med J* 1903, 1, 191. Bottle finishers' cataract. *Ibid* 1907, 2, 381. Removal of the eyeball; a quick and easy method. *Ibid* 1911, 2, 1249. Tom semilunar cartilages. *Ibid* 1914, 1, 133. Glass workers' cataract. *Ophthalmoscope*, 1915, 13, 538. *Our brains and how we got them*. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1925. *Story of the Sunderland Royal Infirmary*. 1934. *Centenary history of the Sunderland Eye Infirmary*. 1936. *Sidelights on the life of a Wearside surgeon, 1859-1938*. Northumberland Press Ltd, 1939, with portrait of the author, an excellent likeness.