Bobby Robinson, the founding father of the Games, was inspired in his efforts by the behaviour of the United States team at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

"Arrogant and obnoxious" was the Canadian's view.

Robinson, the athletics team manager in Amsterdam, had first talked of creating the new "Empire Games", as they were known when they started in 1930, at the Paris Olympic Games in 1924.

He took his efforts to another level four years later. 

Among Robinson's gripes in Amsterdam, where Canada made an official complaint, were the absence of a Canadian flag when Percy Williams received his 100m gold medal; the fact that Americans were allowed to train on the track but Canadians were not; a disputed judges' decision in the women's 100m that went in favour of an American when the Canadians thought their runner had won; and a direct insult by Avery Brundage, then the most influential American in the Olympic Movement, to a Canadian team official.

The Toronto Star reported that meetings to discuss the Empire Games were held in Amsterdam "as a direct result of the dominance, real or attempted, by Germany and the United States at the Olympic meet... Robinson finally boiled over and, after consultation with other Canadian officials, met representatives of the other British teams and laid the foundation for what is hoped will be a series of British Empire meets to be held every four years".

Organisers of the inaugural Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario - where Robinson worked - made clear their aims.

"The event will be designed on an Olympic model, but these Games will be very different," it was said.

"They should be merrier and less stern, and will substitute the stimulus of a novel adventure for the pressure of international rivalry."

Making it happen was a challenge that would have been beyond most people, but not the tireless Robinson.

Melville Marks "Bobby" Robinson left school in Peterborough, Ontario, at 13 and started at the Toronto News as an office boy, working his way up to become sports editor of the Hamilton Spectator in 1908, when he was 20.

He served in the First World War in a machine gun unit, and he also served his local community with distinction.

Robinson was on Hamilton's Education Board - he has a school named after him - and was secretary-treasurer of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association.

He campaigned for farmers at a time of global economic downturn and was well known and respected throughout Ontario.

Robinson, who was also a lover of athletics, founded a prestigious club before being appointed Canada's Olympic team manager.

His influence helped him to persuade the leaders and businessmen in Hamilton, which was Canada's fifth largest city with a population of 151,000, to support the Empire Games despite the global financial crash.

To help persuade other nations to travel to Hamilton he enlisted the help of Canada's most influential railway man, a former Finance Minister, two bank Presidents and the heads of two local universities.

He dreamed up the idea of an Athletes' Village, of a medal ceremony on the podium, and of using volunteers to help the event run smoothly - all purloined by the Olympic Movement, whose leading figures were guests of honour in Hamilton.

As so many people wanted to watch the live action, he had to arrange for 1,000 extra seats to be installed at the Civic Stadium.

Before the week was out an Empire Games Federation had been formed, and the future of what would become the Commonwealth Games was assured.

Bobby Robinson died in 1974, aged 86, but his legacy lives on.

Harold Abrahams, the British sprinter who won Olympic gold in 1924 before becoming one of the most influential voices in athletics in the first half of the 20th century, wrote: "But for the unbounded enthusiasm and persistency of Mr Robinson, the whole thing would never have started."