William Robinson was born in County Down to a family of agricultural labourers. He was an Irish gardener and writer and began work on the estate of the Marquess of Waterford at Curraghmore. He went to the Irish National Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, where he was a student. From 1860 to 1861 he worked at Ballykilcavan and then moved to London where he joined the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden in Regent's Park and became the foreman in charge of the herbaceous plants. He contributed articles to the Gardeners' Chronicle and in 1866 was elected to the Linnean Society on the sponsorship of, among others, Charles Darwin. He spent 1867 in France, visiting gardens and produced two books: Gleaning from French Gardens (1868) and Parks and Gardens of Paris (1869). In 1870 he published Alpine Flowers for Gardens and The Wild Garden and a year later established a weekly journal Garden which he edited until 1899. It was then edited by Gertrude Jekyll and in 1927 became part of Homes and Gardens. In 1883 he published The English Flower Garden which ran to fifteen editions during his life. Other periodicals were established: Gardening Illustrated; Gardener's Chronicle, Cottage Gardening and Flora and Sylva. He edited W. Miller's translation of the Vilmorin book, The Vegetable Garden (1885 and reprinted in 1976) and published The Virgin's Bower, a book on clematis. He influenced the taste for informality in gardens.

Born:	15 July 1838
Died:	12 May 1935