Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson was born on 16 December 1926 in Calder Hall, Tobago, and studied law in England, being called to the Bar in 1955 before completing a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford's St John's College.
Robinson was elected to the Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation in 1958 and to Trinidad and Tobago's own Parliament as representative for Tobago in 1961, beginning a political career that would span more than four decades and shape the development of his smaller home island.
In December 1986 Robinson became the third Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, leading the National Alliance for Reconstruction to a landslide victory, and his tenure was defined by its most harrowing episode: on 27 July 1990, Jamaat al Muslimeen gunmen stormed Parliament, taking Robinson and his cabinet hostage for six days.
Held at gunpoint and shot in the leg during the siege, Robinson nonetheless ordered the army to 'attack with full force', refusing to capitulate to the insurrectionists despite the direct threat to his own life, an act of personal courage that defined his legacy in Trinidadian political history.
Robinson went on to become the third President of Trinidad and Tobago from 1997 to 2003, and was a driving force internationally behind the establishment of the International Criminal Court; he died in 2014 at age 87, remembered as having, in the words of one colleague, 'put the and Tobago in Trinidad and Tobago'.
- Third Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, 1986–1991
- Third President of Trinidad and Tobago, 1997–2003
- Showed personal courage during the 1990 coup attempt, refusing to capitulate while held at gunpoint
- Leading advocate for the establishment of the International Criminal Court
- First active politician to become President of the Republic
- Leadership can be defined in a single moment of crisis. Robinson's refusal to capitulate during the 1990 coup attempt, even while wounded and held hostage, became the defining act of his career.
- Regional service can extend beyond national politics. Robinson's advocacy for the International Criminal Court carried his influence onto the global stage after his presidency.