1262 Robert Burnie

Constituency : Swansea  Town  1892-5

Robert  held  on  to  Swansea  as  the  replacement  for  Lewis  Dillwyn  who  died  just  before  the election. The  Conservatives  selected  Dillwyn's  nephew  Sir  John  Llewellyn  but  Robert  held  the  seat.

Robert  was  a  building  contractor's  son  from  Devon. He  worked  for  a  railway  firm  as  a  manager  in  Cheltenham. The  company  re-located  to  Swansea  in 1870  and  he  became  general  manager  in  1876. In  1877  he  was  elected  to  Swansea  Town  Council  and  later  served  as  Mayor  although  he  stood  down  in  1879  when  it  became  a  county  borough. Robert's  radical  activities  made  him   well  known  and  he  became  treasurer  of  the  Welsh  Farmers' Defence  Fund  fighting  the  tithe. At  the  beginning  of  1892  he  made  a  speaking  tour  of  the  Welsh  counties.  He  sought  the  Liberal  nominations  at  Chelsea  and  Mid  Glamorgan  losing  out  in  the  latter  seat  to  Samuel  Evans  because  he  was  a  Welshman.

Robert  supported  disestablishment  , Home  Rule  for  Wales  and  Ireland  and  social  reform  which  gave  him  a  working  class  following. His  last  parliamentary  contribution  was  a  question  asking  for  a  May  Day  bank  holiday  to  which  Harcourt  responded  in  the  negative.

Robert  lost  out  to  Llewellyn  in  1895. In  1900  the  local  Liberals  refused  to  adopt  him  because  of  his  anti-Boer  War  views.
 
He  died  in  1908  aged  65.