On This Day

03 April 1846

Birth of Robert Threshie Reid, 1st Earl Loreburn, Lord Chancellor 1905-1912

Born in Corfu, where his father was serving as Chief Justice of the Ionian Islands then a British protectorate, Robert Reid served as Liberal MP for Hereford 1880-85 and Dumfries Burghs 1886-1905. In the Liberal governments of the 1890s Reid served as Attorney General 1894 and Solicitor General 1894-95. Firmly on the radical wing of the party, Reid supported Campbell-Bannerman in his difficulties with Lord Rosebery and the Liberal Imperialists. When Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister he appointed Reid as Lord Chancellor and he continued to serve in that post under Asquith until ill health forced his resignation in 1912. A keen cricketer for many years, he played for Oxford University, Herefordshire and the MCC. Reid died aged 77 in 1923.