531 Robert Hurst

Constituency : Horsham  1865-8, 1869-74,  1875-6

Robert  took  Horsham , his  father's  old  seat, from  the  Tories  by  2  votes.

Robert  was  educated  at  Westminster  and  Cambridge  and  became  a  barrister.  He  was  Recorder for Hastings  and  Rye. Most  of  his  parliamentary  interventions  were  on criminal  law  matters.

Robert  had  to  pay  off   a  lot  of  family  debts.

Robert  was  defeated  in  1868  but  his  Tory  opponent  chose  not  to  defend  himself  against  a  petition so  Robert  was  declared  re-elected.

Robert  was  fairly  defeated  in  1874  but  his  opponent  William  Vesey-Fitzgerald   ( who  had  bought his  father's  estate )  had  to  fight  a  by-election  in  1875  when  appointed  a  Charity  Commissioner. Robert  won  that  contest  but  when  a petition  was  launched  against  that  result  he'd  had  enough  and let  another  Liberal, James  Brown, take the  seat.

He  died  in  1905  aged  84.