Robert Wigram Crawford Vanity Fair 11 January 1873

Robert Wigram Crawford (18 April 1813 – 30 July 1889) was a British East India merchant,

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent choosing and mentoring a successor. The governor ...

, and a

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politician who sat in the

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from 1857 to 1874. Crawford was the son of

William Crawford William, Bill, or Billy Crawford may refer to: Entertainment * William Broderick Crawford (1911–1986), American film actor * Bill Crawford (cartoonist) (1913–1982), American editorial cartoonist * William L. Crawford (1911–1984), American p ...

, M.P. for London 1833–41, and his wife Dorothy Elizabeth Rees. He lived in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

for several years, where he was a partner in the firm of Remington & Co. He then headed the firm of Crawford, Colvin, and Co., East India Merchants of London. (See the

Colvin family The Colvin family is the family descended from James Colquhoun Colvin (1767–1847), the son of Alexander Colvin (1718–1791) and Elizabeth 'Bettie' née Kennedy (1714–1795). James was a merchant trading between London and Calcutta during the E ...

for more on these connections.) He was chairman of the East Indian and the

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Companies. In 1869, he became a

, having earlier served as its Deputy Governor Black Friday (1869) occurred during Crawford's tenure as Governor. He was also a Commissioner of Lieutenancy for London, and a Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1870
/ref> Crawford stood for parliament at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

in 1851, where he was elected Member of Parliament when the sitting member was unseated on petition, but was himself displaced on petition because it was alleged that the poll had closed three minutes before the legal hour. In 1852 he was proposed for the

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, but declined to become a candidate although 3765 votes had been cast for him. At the 1857 general election Crawford was elected MP for the City of London. He held the seat until 1874. Crawford married Margaret Urquhart Cruikshank, daughter of the Rev. John Cruickshank, of Turriff, Scotland in 1836. His sister Jane married

Henry Ray Freshfield Henry Ray Freshfield (2 February 1814 – 8 February 1895) was an English lawyer and conservationist. Freshfield was the fourth and youngest son of James William Freshfield and his wife Mary Blacket and was born at Lothbury. His father was a la ...

, of the family of lawyers; as

Jane Freshfield Jane Freshfield (née Jane Quentin Crawford, publishing as "A Lady" and as Mrs Henry Freshfield; 5 July 1814 – 16 March 1901) was an English climber and travel writer. She was among the first British women to explore the Swiss Alps and encourag ...

she wrote travelogues of mountaineering in the Swiss Alps. Crawford died at the age of 76 in 1889. Dhaka Christian Cemetery 202211-5

The caricature hangs on the fifth floor of Norman Shaw North, a building which houses many MPs. The caricature is signed by Robert Wigram Crawford himself.

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* 1813 births 1889 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 Governors of the Bank of England Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Deputy governors of the Bank of England 19th-century English businesspeople {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub