ABSTRACT
John Mackinnon Robertson, 'that most erudite of late Victorians', was born at Brodick in the Isle of Arran on 14 November 1856. He was the second son of John Robertson of Perthshire, and Susan, daughter of John Mackinnon, of Brodick. Robertson joined the Edinburgh Secular Society, and in the early 1880s he became the leader of a group of young fellow secularists, who drew attention to themselves by their vigorous propaganda of freethought and secularism in the face of unbending Scottish orthodoxy. Apart from his involvement in the National Reformer, Robertson was bent on making Mrs Annie Besant's Our Corner as successful as possible, and after a ramble in Windsor Park with Mrs Besant shortly after his arrival in London, it was decided that his versatile friend Patrick Geddes should be asked to contribute. Robertson made countless contributions to the National Reformer, thereby allowing Bradlaugh to concentrate on his parliamentary career.
