He was Leon and Sophia's grandson, son of Emily. He was born in Liverpool in 1895. He first served as a fighter pilot in the First World War. After being made prisoner of war, he went back to England to become a professional dancer, and changed his name to Robert Sielle from his initials C.L. to avoid confusion with another dancer by the name of Roberts.
He and his wife, Annette Mills, Sir John Mill's sister, were called the "English Astaires". They were credited for introducing the Charleston to London after they had seen it danced in New York. They later divorced and he married Marguerite Milton.
Around 1930, he became a famous framemaker for the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery and the Imperial Museum and also from his own account for Buckingham Palace and the White House. He replaced some JW Turner frames and worked for many artists among them David Hockney. Eliot Hodgkin made a painting called "Robert Sielle's file" of a file of delivery notes suspended from a hook on a wall (1963). His talent was to experiment with new materials, and design frames that flowed with the paintings he was asked to frame. He was the first to replace gold standard frames with silver ones at the National Gallery. He wrote articles on the art of framing for various art magazines and continued framing till the end of his life in 1983 .
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