Winrow, Gareth. Whispers across Continents: In Search of the Robinsons, (Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2019).

Abstract

Whispers across Continents is the story of a family spread over England, India, Ottoman Empire, Germany and the United States, and the period covered is from the 19th century to early 20th. It starts with Spencer Robinson (1838-1889), who was a tenant farmer from East Keal in Lincolnshire. He migrated to India to become a tea farmer and also worked on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. After the death of his first wife, in 1880 he married Hannah Rodda (1854-1948), who was raised in the slums of London’s East End. Their son Ahmet (Peel Harold) Robinson (1889-1965) or Ahmet ‘Robenson’ was born in Bengal, lived in the Ottoman Empire and died in New York. He was one of the first goalkeepers for the Galatasaray football team, and he is also known as the person who introduced scouting and basketball to the Ottoman Empire. The German connection of the story is through Gertrude Eisenman, an ‘illegitimate’ daughter of Hannah before she met Spencer. Later Gertrude became a cult figure in Germany as a racing motor-cyclist and a car rally driver in late Wilhelmine Germany.

Keywords

• Modern Turkey
• Britain
• Ahmed Robinson

References

1. Winrow, Gareth. Whispers across Continents: In Search of the Robinsons, (Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2019).