David Robbie (Fijian politician)

Robbie was born in the Scottish town of Forfar in 1849.[1] After being educated in the town, his first job was as a telegraph clerk in the Scottish Railway Company.[1] He then became a sailor, joining a ship trading between Australia and eastern India. In 1872 he moved to the Thames goldfield in New Zealand, before becoming a coastal trader. He then moved to Fiji in 1876, where he bought his own boat, a schooner named Midge,[2] and traded across the Pacific islands.[1] A sunken lagoon that he discovered to the north-east of Wallis was named Robbie Shoal.[2]

He became a manager in the Kopsen & Co company in Suva in 1882. After the company's premises burnt down in 1889, he moved to Levuka, where he married and started running the Royal Hotel.[2] He subsequently established his own merchants firm, Robbie and Evans,[1] which was later bought by Burns Philp.[3] He then established a cocoa, coffee, rubber, tea and vanilla plantation on Vanua Levu.[1] Due to his influence in business, he became President of the Levuka Chamber of Commerce.[1] He also acted as Harbourmaster at Levuka on several occasions.[4]

Robbie entered local politics in Levuka, serving as a member of Levuka Town Council for over two decades.[4] He was also warden and mayor of the town, and chaired the town's school board.[1] In 1905 he contested the Levuka seat in the first elections to the Fijian Legislative Council, and was elected unopposed.[5] However, in the 1908 elections he lost by four votes to John Maynard Hedstrom.[5] He challenged Hedstrom again in the 1911 elections, but lost by six votes.[5]

After retiring he lived on his Wainunu estate on Vanua Levu. His wife died in 1924,[6] and Robbie died in Levuka in 1940.[3] He was described as "tall, and very erect... even to his nineties".[7]