Melville Marks Robinson

Who was Melville Marks Robinson?

Melville Marks Robinson founded the British Empire Games, now known as the Commonwealth Games.

Bobby Robinson was a sports reporter for the Hamilton Spectator. He attended the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam as manager of the Canadian track and field team, to which he had recruited British Guiana runner Phil Edwards, whose "country" had no Olympic team; like other countries' teams, this was Canada's first-ever co-ed track and field team.

The Amsterdam Olympics provided Robinson with a venue for the contacts he would need to sell the idea of holding British Empire Games in the "spirit of friendly competition". The first British Empire Games were therefore held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930, with Edwards competing for British Guiana.

The community-minded Robinson, who lived on a farm near Hamilton in Burlington, Ontario, would later be appointed to the board of Burlington High School, serving from 1940 to 1963, including as its president from 1950 to 1963. Upon his retirement, a new school, M.M. Robinson High School, was named in his honour.

He died on June 6, 1974.