Constituency : Ross and Cromarty 1885-92
Roderick was another independent Liberal allied to the Crofters cause. He displaced the recent by-election victor Ronald Ferguson despite the latter's conversion to the crofter's cause in the wake of the Third Reform Act. The Scotsman fulminated that his victory was down to "illiterates" who couldn't read English and "knew nothing of politics".
Roderick was the son of a crofter from Skye. He was educated at Glasgow University. He briefly taught at a Free Church School before studying medicine and becoming a doctor. He worked as a surgeon in the East End of London. He was treasurer of the London Crofter's Aid and Defence Fund.
Roderick spoke against the Crofters ( Scotland ) Bill in 1886 but generally he was a fairly silent advocate of the cause.
In 1887 Roderick was appointed a coroner in Middlesex and presided over the inquest into the death of one of Jack the Ripper's victims. The inquest was quickly concluded and some Ripper writers have accused him of colluding with the authorities in a cover-up.
Roderick supported reform of the House of Lords.
In 1890 he married the grand-daughter of Spencer Perceval.
Roderick stood down in 1892.
He died of cancer in 1894 aged 54.
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