1146 Robet Bickersteth

Constituency :  Newport  1885-6

Robert  won  the  new  seat  of  Newport  ( Shropshire )  and  was  the  only  Liberal  MP  in  its  short  history.

Robert  was  the  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Ripon. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford.He  was  an  inspector  of  factories  between  1873  and  1880. He  was  private  secretary  to  Lord  Kimberly   at  the  Colonial  Office  between  1880  and  1882  and  Secretary  of  State  for  India  between  1882  and  1885.

Robert's  one  speech  in  the  House  attacked  Gladstone  for  his  inconsistency  and  misleading  the  country  over  Home  Rule  at  the  1885  election. Robert  joined  the  Liberal  Unionists  in  1886  and  stood  for  them  at  Leicester  in  the  election  but  he  was  defeated. He  became  the  secretary  of  the  Liberal  Unionist  Association.

He  died  in  1916  aged  69.