Harold Robinson (dancer)
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9 January 1919
- Ballet dancer
- choreographer
Harold Robinson | |
|---|---|
 Robinson in 1983 | |
| Born | Harold George Robinson 9 January 1919 Dunedin, New Zealand |
| Died | 9 March 2012 (aged 93) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | |
Harold George Robinson (9 January 1919 – March 2012) was a New Zealand soldier in the World War II, a wartime female impersonator, and later a ballet dancer and a choreographer.[1][2] He was the first New Zealander to perform with the Sadler's Wells Ballet (Royal Ballet) on a scholarship.[3]
Robinson was born in Dunedin on 9 January 1919, the son of Ethel and Harry Robinson.[2][3][4][5] He attended St Clair School, before studying at King Edward Technical College.[2]
As a child, Robinson involved himself in performing arts through singing, poetry, ballet, and theatre, competing in the Competitions Society events. He was invited to tour Australia with the Westminster Glee Singers at the age of 10.[6][2] He was also a member of several performing arts clubs in his youth, including the Otago Repertory Company and the Dunedin Shakespeare Club.[2]
Robinson had a brother, Stephen, and both served during World War II. Stephen was a Sergeant Pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force attached to the Royal Air Force, No. 15 Advanced Flying Unit and was killed in an air accident on 24 March 1942. He is buried in Swanton Morley (All Saints) Churchyard in Norfolk in England.[7]
War service
In 1941, Robinson enlisted in the New Zealand Army and served for the remaining four years of World War II.[2] He was initially posted to the Pacific, where he served in the 36 Infantry Battalion.[8] During this time, he served as batman to Major Jack Marshall, who went on to become New Zealand's 28th Prime Minister.[7][9] Robinson was posted to Fiji, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, Guadacanal and then the Treasury Islands. He was present for the opposed landing at Mono Island, which was the first of its kind to be carried out by New Zealand troops since the landing at Gallipoli.[6] Robinson was later posted with Reinforcements to Egypt in 1945, where he was a pay clerk in the New Zealand Army Pay Corps.[6][7]
During his military service, Robinson would often entertain troops through performing arts, and was a part of the Tui Concert Party during his service in the Pacific. Robinson performed using dresses he made from donated and scrap fabrics.[6] He was also known often to perform in drag as Carmen Miranda and Minnie From Trinidad.[6] As a homosexual man, Robinson became very friendly with other queer men, including the two female impersonators in the Kiwi Concert Party in the Pacific, Ralph Dyer and Douglas Morison.[6] It was Dyer who gave Robinson his 'camp' name "Helena", after Helena Rubinstein.[6] Robinson's experience in the World War II has been used to illustrate that there appeared to be a general tolerance of some degree of queer activity with the New Zealand military forces, as long as people were discrete.[10] Military service provided a safety net for some men to explore their sexuality.[11]