Vale Robin Timmins OAM
Rugby Life Member of The Rugby Club Foundation, NSW Rugby Life Member and OAM recipient Robin Timmins sadly passed away earlier this week.
Robin’s Rugby involvement commenced with her husband Geoff in the Eastwood District Rugby Referees Association after its formation in 1963. By the mid 1960s, Robin was the Honorary Secretary of the Association, a voluntary position she held until 1982.
In 1968, Robin was employed as a Secretary by the Sydney Rugby Union, and not long after showed interest in sitting the referees exams being held at the offices. Told she could not sit for the exam, Robin investigated the constitution and finding no mention of gender, convinced the Chairman to let her sit the exam, which she passed, and as a result became the first active female referee in Australia. Robin then refereed for many years at different levels of the game.
From 1982 until 2002, Robin remained an active volunteer with the Eastwood District Rugby Referees Association at Committee level and was awarded a Life Membership of their Association for her outstanding service to the game. This award was subsequently recognised by Sydney West Rugby Referees Association following a restructure in 2009.
The NSW Rugby Union Referees Association awarded Robin a Life Membership for her outstanding contribution to the refereeing fraternity in 2002. The first female to receive such an award
In 2013 Robin received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her Services to Rugby (and the Liberal Party) and in a ceremony in Dublin, was awarded the IRB (now World Rugby) Development Award for her service to the game. Fittingly she shared the stage that night with players such as Catchpole, Campese, Ella and Gregan who were inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In that same year, Robin became an Honorary Life Member of NSW Rugby Union, the first female to do so in the Union’s 139 year history.
After 48 years of employment with the Sydney Rugby Union and subsequently the NSW Rugby Union when the two entities merged in 1991, Robin retired in 2016. An article in Rugby News in 1998, celebrating her 30 years of work, suggested she had done every job possible except coach the Waratahs and be the CEO!
For many of those 48 years Robin served as Referees Assistant, which was appropriate given her lifelong devotion to referees. She was universally known to all Rugby referees across NSW as one of the great characters of rugby.
Robin will always be remebered for her love of the Eastwood Rugby Club (her beloved ‘Woodies’) whom she religiously and tirelessly supported. Her car seats decorated with Eastwood Rugby Club jerseys.
Every second Saturday afternoon, Robin could be found in the grand stand of T. G. Millner Field, surrounded by her loyal blue and white-garbed band of friends, in what became known as ‘Tim-Tam Corner’ for the biscuits accompanying the coffee and tea breaks during the various games. Occasionally something a little bit stronger snuck in from a hip flask.
Robin was a pioneer for women in rugby and sport in general and a wonderful and loyal servant of the game. She will be sorely missed and fondly remembered.
The Rugby Club Foundation thanks Mark Green, GM Community Rugby NSWRU & friend of Robin Timmins for compiling this tribute.
Photos curtesy of Eastwood District Rugby Union Football Club