Canon John Rees writes:
DR FRANK ROBSON was appointed Registrar of the Province of Canterbury by Archbishop Robert Runcie in 1982. He presided over the appointment of almost the whole bench of bishops in the Southern Province during the next 18 years, and had dealt with the legal formalities on the retirement of all but one of them by the time he himself retired. His baritone rendering of the Queen’s Letters Patent at each consecration, in his distinctive Northumbrian tones, accompanied the arrival of each new bishop of the Church of England throughout the closing years of the 20th century.
Having qualified as a solicitor with a family firm in Morpeth in the early 1950s, he took a break from legal practice, to read theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge. While there, he met Garth Moore and Peter Winckworth — the eponymous senior partner of the firm that Frank went on to lead in the early 1990s, known by then as Winckworth Sherwood.
Moving to Oxford in 1958, he ran the diocesan registry for the next 40 years. For many years, he had been an elected lay member of the Church Assembly, which, in 1970, morphed into the General Synod. He brought his considerable forensic skills and practical experience to the work of its legislative committees.
He was a founding member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society, which he chaired for many years. For 27 years, he was secretary of the Oxford diocesan synod, in recognition of which he was awarded the OBE in 1991. The same year, Runcie granted him a Lambeth doctorate in civil law. He wore these honours, as he wore his learning, lightly. What mattered to him was the provision of clear, crisp, and accurate advice given in ways that made immediate sense to the very many clergy, clients, and colleagues who received it.
One priest in Oxford diocese, now a bishop, said of him: “Some of us who have been around for 40 years revered Frank for his intelligence and common sense — not only in what the law said, but how it should be applied to real people’s lives with compassion and thoroughness — which he never set against one another.”
One bishop waited until the day after Frank’s retirement before notifying the registry of his own wish to stand down — when he was over 80. This was Eric Kemp, the last bishop who was not subject to the age limit introduced by General Synod in 1975. The two had known each other well for many years, both on the National Assembly, and as founder members of the Ecclesiastical Law Society in 1985. History does not tell us whether this timing was due to rivalry, a wager, or mere coincidence.
It was a great personal sadness that his wife, Helen, also a solicitor, whom he met during his early years in the law in Morpeth and married in 1958, died suddenly in 2004, only a short time after he finally retired from active legal practice. In the years since then, his family of five children and their partners and five grandchildren have been close and supportive, as has his wide circle of friends and former colleagues, and he found cheerful companionship with Irene in recent years.
Those who knew him well would say that his manner was always disarming: his kindness and humanity were often disguised beneath a carefully cultivated façade of curmudgeonliness — a recent correspondent, now a QC, says that he “used to find Frank terrifying. It took me years to meet the warm and generous person he tried to hide.” Archbishop George Carey said that he would often come away from conversations with Frank with the words “but it will end in tears”, enunciated in his distinctive Geordie accent, ringing in his ears.
Frank Elms Robson died from the Covid-19 virus on 22 April, after a brief illness. He will be sorely missed by his family and many friends and colleagues. It may be some time before arrangements can be made for a memorial service. Meanwhile, we thank God for him, for all he has contributed to the life of the Church and the lives of so many. May he now rest in peace and rise in glory.
