Robert Harper (1 February 1842 – 9 January 1919) was an Australian politician. Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, he was educated at

Glasgow Academy The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational private day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully private school in ...

and migrated to Australia in 1856, becoming a tea and coffee merchant and a pastoralist. In 1879, he was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...

as the member for West Bourke; he was defeated in 1880, but in 1882 returned to the Assembly as the member for East Bourke. He was defeated again in 1889, but was returned as member for East Bourke 1891–97. In the first federal election in 1901, he was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

as the

Protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

member for Mernda. He joined the

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fu ...

when it was formed out of the fusion of the Protectionists and the Anti-Socialists. Harper's seat of Mernda was abolished in 1913, and he retired. He died in 1919.

References

, - 1842 births 1919 deaths Protectionist Party members of the Parliament of Australia Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Mernda Members of the Australian House of Representatives Victoria (state) state politicians People educated at the Glasgow Academy Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia 19th-century Australian businesspeople Politicians from Glasgow Businesspeople from Glasgow Australian MPs 1901–1903 Australian MPs 1903–1906 Australian MPs 1906–1910 Australian MPs 1910–1913 {{Australia-politician-stub