The first Parish Priest of the independent St Mary's Parish, he financed the building of the Presbytery when he arrived in 1922.

 

Father Herbert Frederick Robins was born in 1875 and came to Crowborough in 1922 and remained there until his death in 1945. Before he went into the Catholic Church, he was a promising tea broker in London, having been admitted to the Wax
 Chandlers and become a freeman of the City of London. While still a priest he twice had the honour of being Master of the Wax Chandlers.

 

He was ordained in 1902, and worked in Croydon, Balham, Tooting, Brighton & Rye before coming to Crowborough.

Fr Robins appears never to have retired, but was taken ill suddenly and died after an urgent operation in 1945.