3 January 1936 - 2 July 2020

Written by Caroline's husband, Frans 

Caroline was born in Midhurst as daughter of Wyndham Robinson, the famous cartoonist in Fleet Street, and Yolande Cavendish. She had a very happy childhood and enjoyed going to St Swithun’s in 1948. She left St Swithun’s after six years with good memories. Her whole life the motto of the school was her guide: Caritas, Humilitas, Sinceritas and she tried to live accordingly.

Languages were her forte - she spoke English, French, Swedish and Dutch fluently. After two active years in the public relations sector in London, she went to Montreal, Canada, where she joined forces with Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and met her first husband Ulf, who she married in 1963. They lived in Sweden and had three children: Annemarie, Andreas and Henrik.

In 1978 she joined the Swedish section of AMREF Flying Doctors (Kenya) as a volunteer for which she gave her talents and qualities as an organiser, fundraiser and public relations expert. In 1983, during an annual board members meeting of AMREF in Denmark, she met Frans Sandbergen, of AMREF the Netherlands, and after careful deliberations they married in June 1986.

Caroline became a Dutch citizen and with her characteristic gusto for 15 years she was the chief editor of CBI News Bulletin, a monthly publication of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at sustaining export entrepreneurs in developing countries.

During an interview in the Amsterdam Fashion Centre with a Cypriot textile expert, whose business it was to produce uniforms for British schools, Caroline remarked, “One on, one off and one in the laundry.” The man was surprised by that remark and asked which school(s) she had visited. When she spoke of her six years at St Swithun’s she rose visibly in his esteem and he said to her, “Madam, then I have to congratulate you on an excellent education.”

After retiring in 2002 she did nine years of research on her family heritage, especially that of her mother’s lineage. On 13 June 2020 Caroline fell on the stone path in the garden which caused her severe brain damage and she died peacefully almost a month later, on 9 July, in a hospice. Above her death announcement Caroline wanted the text of an observation she made in 1985:

I trace the golden thread of destiny woven through the fabric of my life, its twists and turns and seeming hesitations. At times, it is hard to discern and then it re-appears, shining with purpose.

She is missed dearly.