Sir Robin Danvers Penrose Gillett, 2nd Baronet GBE KStJ RD (9 November 1925 – 21 April 2009), was Lord Mayor of London 1976–77. He was also Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod 1985 – 30 November 2000.
Family and education
Born in London on Lord Mayor's Day, as it then was, on 9 November 1925, Robin Gillett was the only child of Captain Sir Harold Gillett, 1st Baronet MC FCA, who was Lord Mayor of London, 1958–59. He was educated at Pangbourne 1939–43, and Hill Crest School.
He married twice: firstly, in 1950, Elizabeth Marion Grace (died 1997), the elder daughter of John Findlay, JP, of Busby House, Lanarkshire. They had two children: Nicholas (born 1955) and Christopher (the singer, born 1958). He married secondly Alwynne Winifred Hay (1931-2021), daughter of James MacDonald Hay, on 8 July 2000. Lady Hay had previously been married to John Lant (div.1954) and Judge Albert Edward Cox (1916-1992).
Naval career
He was an Elder Brother of Trinity House and Admiral of the City Livery Yacht Club. Served Canadian Pacific Steamships, 1943–60; Master Mariner 1951; Staff Comdr 1957; Hon. Comdr RNR 1971.
After the Nautical College he went to sea as a cadet with Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd with which he served on North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Russian convoys. He remained with Canadian Pacific until after the war obtaining his Master Mariner's Certificate in 1951. In 1950 he joined the Royal Naval Reserve.
From 1953 he served for a year in the Persian Gulf in the frigate HMS Flamingo doing RNR training and in 1957 became the youngest Staff Commander of the Canadian Pacific flagship the Empress of Scotland, a rank he held until he left the sea in August 1960 having been recruited while serving in the Empress of Britain.