Henry Wheeler-Robinson (1872-1945)
Artist: Herbert James Gunn (1893-1964)
Henry Wheeler Robinson was a Baptist theologian, minster, and writer, and was the Principal of Regent’s Park College from 1920 to 1942. He was a renowned scholar and is known for his particular interest in the Old Testament.
Robinson was born on 7th February 1872, in Northampton. He trained at Regent’s Park before moving to Edinburgh University and later Mansfield College, Oxford. Throughout, he remained a spiritual man greatly devoted to God, and occasionally taught at Sunday school. As a Baptist minister, he was known for his preaching and was well respected despite a harsh attitude, as evidenced by a dramatic argument with his church secretary at the pulpit. After six years as a Baptist minister, and time as a tutor at Rawdon College, he was invited to become Principal of Regent’s Park in 1920. He was hesitant to take the role, but with patience and vision relocated the college from London to its current home, St Giles, Oxford. Without him, the college would not be where it stands today.
As he appears in this portrait by James Gunn, Robinson was a serious and stern man. He despised laziness and untidy work and was traditional in his views. In 1923, despite encouragement to the contrary from his predecessor, Robinson refused to pay the exam fees of Violet Hedger, the first female student at Regent’s, only paying those of the male students. He is seen here as a scholar, wearing his Edinburgh doctoral robes in front of a self-made diagram representing his Baptist faith, which was the driving force of his life all the way to his death in 1945.