Worked for Dalgety's then joined the AIF in 1940. Joined the 2/2nd field ambulance and served in Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Greece. Taken prisoner on Crete by Germans in 194l. Repatriated in 1943 and returned to Australia in 1944. Wrote a book on his experiences 'Journey to Captivity' which was published by the Australian War Memorial Museum in 199l. Also wrote poetry and stories, some of which was published.

Went to London in 1947 to open a London office for Qantas. Later he owned Boomerang Travel Agency in Piccadilly. Returned to Australia in 1982 and bought a house in Park St, Mt Waverly. Had a heart double bypass operation in 1985, which gave him an extra 4 years.

The following is from the introduction to his book "Journey to Captivity".

"This book is the record of almost four years of a young man's life. In March 1940 the young man became a soldier; in April 1944 he became a civilian again; many years later he wrote this book and so became an author. These transitions sound easy an some undoubtably were; in 1940 it was not difficult, for example, to stop being a civilian and become a soldier. Good soldiers and good authors are not so easily made. A glance at some aspects of this young man's background may help explain his becoming both.

From his birth in Sydney on 9 October 1914 to his enlistment in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 15 March 1940 Charles Herbert Robinson acquired and developed a number of qualities and abilities that were to stand him in good stead as a soldier, as a prisoner of war and as a writer.

There was, for instance, his aptitude for noting and registering the world around him, without which this book would be a much poorer one, or not written at all. We may be greatful that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were Hansard reporters, for a writer growing up with such influences could hardly help developing the skills of observing and recording to which the immediacy and vividness of this narrative owe so much.

While a pupil at Grimwade House and the prestigous Melbourne Grammar School the author was a member of the Scouts and Rover Scouts. before he left school he was involved in mapping out forest areas on the outskirts of Melbourne in preparation for the world scouting jamboree in 1935. There must have been times in the forests and fields of Germany in the last days of 1942 that he thanked the providence which had caused so many of the days of his youth to be spent as a scout.

In 1938 he set out to discover the world for himself and in the process familiarised himself with other peoples, cultures and languages so that when, as a soldier, he saw Palestine, North Africa and Greece, or when he came again to visit, albeit reluctantly, those European places he had seen as a tourist, he was not overwhelmed by the strangeness but was moved to observe and assimilate.

Charles Robinson was discharged from the army on 21 Apr 1944. Reluctant to lose the links forged with the French while he was a prisoner of war he contacted the Free French Movement in Melbourne. The movement's secretary was a young Belgian woman, Mlle José Verschueren, whom Charles subsequently married on 2 September 1944. They had three children.

His wartime experience did nothing to persuade Charles to settle down in Australia. Ever the traveller, he and his family moved to England in 1947. In 1949 he visited Grermany and Crete, particularly those places associated with his experiences as a prisoner of war. He opened his own travel agency in London in 1954, and for the next 28 years he was able to indulge his love of travel and adventure.

He returned to Australia in 1982, there to contend with worsening health. He died of a heart attack on 8 June 1989.

Charles Robinson was a born traveller to whom travel was an experience tobe lived and enjoyed. He had that special ability to see a journey from the point of view of an adventurer, as more than merely a method of getting from place to place. This book is the result.

Most Significantly, though, Charles Robinson was a brave, humane, humorous man. Whatever harmony of genes and experience was responsible for these qualities is also responsible for this fine memoir, a fitting monument to its author and all those remembered herein."