Born 28 August 1881 in Liverpool, Great Britain, Robb Wilton is a comedian whose work still stands up as remarkably affecting; his standard character was a procrastinating, work-shy impediment: the human face of bureaucracy. Much of Wilton's reputation to the modern cultural researcher rests on the series of filmed monologues he recorded in the 1930s and 1940s, with him placed as an authority figure, blithely, incompetently 'going about his work'; as a policeman, for example, who shilly-shallies his way out of acting upon a reported murder by pursuing an absurdly contrarian line of questioning.

His famed style was comprised of a sleepy, world-weary rubbing of the face, dry, Lancastrian delivery, sublimely dithering fingering of props, like a police hat, or papers on the desk.

People who have acknowledged his influence include fellow Liverpudlian Ken Dodd (1927-), and myriad northern comedians or lay people who excel merging the down-to-earth merged and the surreal. Film historian and specialist on British cinema, Jeffrey Richards , has cited him as a key influence for the TV sitcom Dad's Army (1968-1977), c.f. his monologues in the person of a layabout husband who wryly takes part in the home guard. His gentle, if pointed, manner of comedy tallies entirely with the wistful adventures of the famous Walmington-on-Sea platoon.

He appeared in several films, from 1934, generally in supporting comic roles. His last film appearance was in the Arthur Askey (1900-1982) vehicle The Love Match 1955.

Wilton died 1 May 1957 in London.