Arthur Robinson & Co. began trading in Melbourne in May, just prior to the outbreak of World War I. Its two founding partners were Arthur Robinson and George Forrest Davies.

Robinson was born on 23 April 1872. The nephew of Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, he was later to become Sir Arthur Robinson. An ancestor was Sir Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers.

Davies' interests lay in the practice of the law and he was widely recognized for his outstanding skill. Enlisting in the Australian Army in 1915, he rose to the commissioned rank of Captain and was awarded the Military Cross. He died at the age of 72.