Mrs Hester Robins OBE
Mrs Robins was elected a Liberal Councillor for the St Aubyn Ward in 1928, and sat as a councillor until her early death in 1936. An experienced member of the Board of Guardians, she became a member of the Plymouth Public Assistance Committee, and its Vice Chairman in 1932, finally being appointed the Chairman in 1935. She also chaired the Public Health Committee. Her tireless community activities in the service of the poor and needy saw her awarded the OBE in 1934, which was described by Rev Wohson as a tribute to her work which had raised the prestige of the Jewish community ‘to a very high degree’. A thoroughly practical, as well as benevolent women, she was particularly sensitive to the needs of women and children, which brought her into contact with Nancy Astor. Mrs Robins fought passionately to safeguard the interests of the Devonport element within the wider city of Plymouth and was sometimes dubbed the Little Mother of Devonport, She was devoted also to the Liberal political interest. She was a close friend (he described her as a second mother) to the Devonport MP Leslie Hore-Belisha, and he insisted that it was she who gave him his understanding of politics. She was an important part of the continuation of a tradition in Plymouth of the local Jewish community’s commitment to public service. It is a measure of the substantial extent of her local impact, and the respect and admiration with which she was widely regarded, that her funeral was the largest Jewish funeral for many years, being attended by the Lord Mayor and many other councillors, as well as a wide number of other local figures outside the Jewish community. The procession of cars going to the cemetery was estimated at nearly a mile long.