UK shipbroking group Eggar Forrester has paid tribute to former managing director Michael Robinson, who died on Monday at the age of 93.
Described as a “giant of the industry”, Robinson had been ill for a number of months. He had “never really recovered from a rather lonely spell in hospital in September”, Eggar Forrester director Paul Willcox said.
According to handwritten notes that Robinson had prepared on his life, and shown to TradeWinds by his son Simon, the future broker was born in 1927 and educated at England’s Radley College boarding school from 1940 to 1944.
Security operations
He was commissioned into the Irish Guards in 1945 and served in Palestine in 1947 on internal security operations, before becoming a salesman in the US from 1950 to 1953 and then working for British electronics company Plessey between 1954 and 1956.
Robinson joined Eggar Forrester that year and worked his way up to managing director before leaving in 1980. He returned to serve as a director from 1992 to 2006.
Simon Robinson, also a shipbroker, told TradeWinds: “He mentioned quite recently the newbuilding orders he’d contracted at British shipyards, especially at Austin & Pickersgill and Harland & Wolff. The number was phenomenal!”
Robinson held many other directorships, including at Hill Samuel Shipping Holdings, Lloyd’s Register, UK tanker owner James Fisher, Belfast Freight Ferries and Wilks Shipping Co.
He was a director and trustee of Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent, south-eastern England, until retiring in 1997, and held the same role at Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve, among other charitable works.
Extensive network of friends
A former Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights (WCS) in London, Robinson listed his interests as “country matters, shooting, ornithology, gardening, cricket, skiing, golf and people”, as well as shipping and world travel.
“Michael was a giant of the ship sale-and-purchase industry,” Willcox said.
“His broking skills, especially in the context of generating newbuilding orders for Harland & Wolff, Austin & Pickersgill and other shipyards during the 1970s, were a cornerstone of this company’s success.”
Later in his career he became sales director for British Shipbuilders. His network of friends in shipping was extensive.
“Eggar Forrester, and I personally, owe him a huge debt. I remember him, his sense of fun and his twinkling smile, with love and gratitude,” Willcox said.
WCS clerk Richard Cole-Mackintosh said Robinson was a very proud Shipwright. He was granted the Freedom of the Company in 1969 and the Freedom of the City of London in 1970.
Cole-Mackintosh added: “Michael was married to Elizabeth, who was also held in the highest regard by the Shipwrights and was made a Freeman honoris causa in 1995 but sadly died in 2017.”
The couple’s second son, Gavin, died 15 years ago.
Robinson is survived by Simon, daughter-in-law Caroline, granddaughter Abigail, grandson Joshua and great-grandson Alfie.
Numbers at the funeral will be restricted due to the pandemic, but the family said there will be a service of thanksgiving next year.
Eggar Forrester is the parent company of shipbroker CW Kellock.
