Robin Leslie Bailey was born on 10 January 1947 at East Melbourne. As he walked through his early life it became obvious that school was just a place to have fun and play sport, and at secondary school you can add girls, but he passed everything without any problems. In what was to be his final year in Year 12 (Intermediate in those days) after tackling his history teacher, a Mr Hotten, after he caught the teacher spying up girls' dresses with a dentist's mirror stuck in his shoe and later caught him having sex with a goat at the back of the Sandringham tennis courts, he decided to get a job. His parents were disappointed, but within five years he had completed a degree in Cost Accounting and was employed as a cost accountant with a very good wage for his age and experience; however, he badly wanted to be a police officer. At twenty-two years of age, he joined Victoria Police, and after almost twenty-nine years of service he had achieved the following: . Rapid promotion through to chief inspector when he retired early; . Attained a degree in business in 1990; . Was dux of the Sub Officers (Sergeants) Course, dux of Detective Training School and dux of Advanced Detective Training School. He had a fascination with criminal law and criminals. . He received six Chief Commissioner's commendations (most police would be delighted with one)-'Professionalism', 100 Robin Bailey 'leadership', 'investigative skills', 'perseverance', and 'dedication' were mentioned in many of them. . If an investigation was political, difficult, and complex or the Victoria Police needed someone to address internal issues, he was almost always the one that the commissioners turned to. . In the last twelve years of his career, he almost always reported directly to commissioner level with the usual administration management in the middle, but often not required. . On various occasions he was asked to personally attend police command meetings to provide progress reports or provide 'expert advice'. . All of this was done efficiently despite the fact that due to his overseas posting with the Australian police with the United Nations during a full-scale war, being the closest person to the Russell Street bombing and having a contract on his life which was almost carried out.
