Robert was born in Southampton on March 16, 1891. His father was a blacksmith and carriage maker. He attended elementary and secondary school in Southampton and took Grade 13, Senior Matriculation, in Port Elgin in preparation for advancing his education.
He began playing Canadian Rugby with his friends in Southampton and Port Elgin and excelled at the sport. His desire to learn had him taking advanced education courses at the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute. He did all of this by the age of 18. Along the way, he somehow got the nickname, Dinny, and it stayed with him all his life.
In 1909, he went West to Regina and enrolled in the Saskatchewan Law Society Lawyer Course. His love of Canadian Rugby went with him, and from 1911 to 1913, he played football for the Regina Rugby Club, now the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He articled in the law office of Sir Frederick Haultain, the former Premier of the North-West Territories of Canada.
Before entering politics, Dinny married in 1915 and entered local municipal politics in 1920, and in 1929 was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan and was the Chief Whip of the Co-Operative Government.
He was a long-term friend and confidante of John Diefenbaker and in 1958, he was elected as an MP to the Canadian House of Commons and re-elected in 1962 under Prime Minister Diefenbaker.
In 1963 he resigned his seat in Ottawa and was appointed the 12th Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan where he served with distinction until 1970. He died in Saskatchewan on July 25, 1974, and he is heralded there for his long and distinguished career while serving the people of their province.
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