{{short description|British politician}} {{about||his son, the British politician|Robert Yerburgh, 1st Baron Alvingham}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} [[File:Robert Armstrong Yerburgh, Vanity Fair, 1893-10-19.jpg|thumb|"Chester". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1893.]] '''Robert Armstrong Yerburgh''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|DL|JP}} (17 January 1853 – 18 December 1916), was a British barrister and Conservative politician.
==Early life== He was the son of the Rev. Richard Yerburgh, vicar of New Sleaford, and Susan Higgin, daughter of John Higgin of Lancaster, and had ten full brothers and sisters;<ref>Richard Eustre, Susan Edith, John Eardley, Oswald, Mary Florence, Edmond Rochfort, Rachel, Harry Beauchamp, Lucy Isabel, and Charlotte Elizabeth.</ref> by his father's second marriage in 1863 he had two half-sisters, Annie Constance and Mabel Stanley.<ref>''Burke's Peerage'', volume 1 (1999), p. 66</ref> He was educated at Rossall School and Harrow School. He matriculated at University College, Oxford in 1873, graduating B.A. at St Alban Hall in 1877. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1880.<ref>{{alox2|title=Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong}}</ref><ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=52367|first=Simon|last=Harrison|title=Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong (1853–1916)}}</ref>
==Career== Yerburgh went the northern circuit as a barrister. In 1886, after losing the previous year to Walter Foster, he was elected to the House of Commons for Chester, standing for the Unionists. He lost the seat in 1906, but was elected again in 1910.<ref name="ODNB"/>
In 1916 Yerburgh was intended for a peerage, but he died in December of that year, before the patent had been completed, aged 63. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire and a Justice of the Peace for Kirkcudbrightshire.
==Interests== Yerburgh supported the British Produce Supply Organisation, set up in 1896 by Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea.<ref name="Pratt">{{cite book |last1=Pratt |first1=Edwin A. |title=Agricultural organisation, its rise, principles and practice abroad and at home |date=1912 |publisher=London : King |page=10 |url=https://archive.org/details/agriculturalorg00prat/page/n10/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Labour Copartnership |date=1896 |page=214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ecs7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA214 |language=en}}</ref> He acted as president of the National Agricultural Union, and in 1901 introduced a motion in the House of Commons on the food security of the United Kingdom, about which he had grave concerns.<ref>{{cite book |last1=French |first1=David |title=British Economic and Strategic Planning: 1905-1915 |date=5 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-60827-8 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiD8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |language=en}}</ref> When William Lancelot Charleton of Newark set up the British Agricultural Organisation Society, in 1901, to promote co-operatives on a model used already by the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society he became its president.<ref name="Pratt"/><ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bonner |first1=Arnold |title=British Co-operation: The History, Principles and Organisation of the British Co-Operative Movement |date=1970 |publisher=Co-operative Union |location=Manchester |isbn=978-0-85195-031-0 |page=414 |language=en}}</ref>
==Private life== In 1888 Yerburgh married Elma Amy, a daughter of Daniel Thwaites,<ref name=":0"/> and the couple lived at Billinge Scar, near Blackburn, before moving to Woodfold Hall. On the death of his father-in-law he shared with his wife the ownership of the Thwaites Brewery in Blackburn.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Daniel Thwaites & Co. Ltd Round Tin {{!}} Brewery Trays |url=https://brewerytrays.co.uk/wp/product/daniel-thwaites-co-ltd-round-tin-3/ |access-date=2025-05-09 |language=en-US}}</ref> They had two sons. Their younger son, Robert, also became a Conservative politician and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Alvingham in 1929 (his older brother, Richard, having died in 1926). Elma Amy Yerburgh died in 1946.
==Coat of Arms== Yerburgh’s armorial bearings were ''per pale argent and azure on a chevron between three chaplets all counterchanged an annulet for the difference and on an escutcheon of pretence the arms of Theaites namely ermine a cross engrailed sable fretty argent in the first and fourth quarter a chaplet of oak vert. The mantling is azure and argent. For a crest: on a wreath of the colours a falcon close or belled of the last preying upon a mallard proper.''<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Fox-Davies |first=Arthur |title=Armorial Families |publisher=TC & EC Jack |year=1899 |edition=3 |location=London |pages=912–913 |language=English}}</ref>
The motto “who dares wins” was sometimes used alongside the arms described here.<ref name=":0" />
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
== External links == *[https://archive.org/stream/somenotesonourfa00yerb/somenotesonourfa00yerb_djvu.txt Yerburgh family history (1912)] * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-robert-yerburgh | Robert Yerburgh }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = Balthazar Foster }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Chester | years = 1886 – 1906 }} {{s-aft | after = Alfred Mond }}
{{s-bef | before = Alfred Mond }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Chester | years = 1910 – 1916 }} {{s-aft | after = Owen Philipps }} {{s-end}}
{{Thwaites family}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerburgh, Robert}} Category:1853 births Category:1916 deaths Category:People educated at Rossall School Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1886–1892 Category:UK MPs 1892–1895 Category:UK MPs 1895–1900 Category:UK MPs 1900–1906 Category:UK MPs 1910 Category:UK MPs 1910–1918 Category:Deputy lieutenants of Lancashire Category:Scottish justices of the peace Category:People educated at Harrow School