Obituaries

Charles Robin Ashwin (1952) was born in Adelaide, South Australia on September 27, 1930 and grew up in a house that his parents had built by the River Torrens. He preferred the name ‘Robin’ to the name ‘Charles’, and was known as ‘Zug’ to his friends. Robin died peacefully in his own bed, surrounded by his family on September 14, 2019. After attending Pulteney Grammar, St Peters College and the University of Adelaide where he excelled in both academics and sport, he came to New College as a Rhodes scholar in 1952. Robin’s interest in international affairs was kindled at a young age and his Rhodes Scholarship application essay was on the topic of forms of international governance. After graduating at Oxford he was offered a cadetship at the Australian Department of External Affairs. His first posting was to the Australian Delegation to the UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea (UNCURK) in Seoul. Robin’s job involved observing and reporting on development of democracy in a South Korea that was still very much suffering from the effects of the Korean War. While he was there he met and fell in love with a young Korean woman, Okche Chon, who would become his wife and life partner. They were married in Sydney in May 1959, and later had a son, Kim and a daughter, Mulan.

Various postings followed, including London, Bonn, Bangkok and New York. Robin was posted as Ambassador to Egypt in 1975. He took a keen interest in the Middle East peace process, and was an early supporter of the Palestinian cause. He was posted as Australian Ambassador to Bonn and then to Moscow in 1982, and 1987 respectively. From those two vantage points he witnessed and advised the Australian Government on the events leading up to and including the end of the Cold War. Robin had great faith in people, and those who worked with him considered him a wonderful boss and appreciated his management style. He believed in offering opportunities to young officers and mentored a new generation of Australian diplomats who have served, or are currently serving, at the highest levels of the Australian foreign service. He was, in particular, supportive of the careers of women officers in the Department, who in the early days had many obstacles to overcome to achieve equality with their male colleagues. After retiring from the diplomatic service in 1990 Robin accepted the position of Master of St Marks College in Adelaide, where he helped South Australian students to make the most of their university years during the 1990s. Robin was very involved in the academic and social life of the college and was much loved by his students. He retired as Master in 1999.

Robin was irreverent, occasionally iconoclastic. He saw through the nonsense and was happy to puncture pomposity. He was always laughing when he was telling a story or seeing the humour in a situation. He had a great love of mountains and mountain climbing. He ascended the Dom in Switzerland as a young man and much later scrambled up Mont Blanc with his daughter.

From his early days in Adelaide, Robin Ashwin innately understood that people had to find better ways to communicate and cooperate internationally, and he worked hard to better the world through diplomatic means. He understood that the challenges we face are increasingly global in nature, and that national interest, narrowly defined, often stands in the way of solutions. Many of his views seem prescient now, as we come to understand the vulnerability of democracy and civil society, and the importance of working across borders to solve the world’s pressing problems.