Robin Fletcher started to play hockey before World War II, while studying at Marlborough College. His hockey career was interrupted by the war, as Fletcher volunteered with the Royal Navy. First serving on board HMS Gambia, Fletcher was diverted to the Levant (later Anglo-Hellenic) Schooner Flotilla, whose aims were intelligence gathering, striking at enemy island garrisons in the Aegean, and disrupting their communications. At the end of the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and promoted to lieutenant, commanding a trawler engaged in clearing mines from the English Channel.
After the war, Fletcher went to Trinity College, Oxford to read Classics, later diverting to Modern Greek with the benefit of his war-time experience. He captained the Oxford hockey team and was selected to the British 1952 Olympic team, winning a bronze medal. In all, Fletcher was capped 22 times with the England team between 1949-55. He managed the 1964 British Olympic hockey team and from 1973-83 was president of the British Hockey Association.
Fletcher’s graduation coincided with the establishment of a new lectureship at Oxford in Modern Greek, which he won in competition. Trinity elected him first to a Fellowship and shortly after became its Domestic Bursar. In 1967-68, Fletcher was the Senior Proctor and led the University’s governing body, the Hebdomadal Council. At the same time, Fletcher was also a member of Hart Committee, which paved the way to the reform of the relationship between the student body and the Oxford authorities. Later his interest in academic administration led to service on the Trustee Boards for a number of leading public schools. From 1980-89 Fletcher served as Warden of Rhodes House, responsible for the running of the Rhodes Scholarship.
Great Britain