1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Loreburn, Robert Threshie Reid, 1st Earl

13794961922 Encyclopædia Britannica — Loreburn, Robert Threshie Reid, 1st Earl

LOREBURN, ROBERT THRESHIE REID, 1st Earl (1846-), British lawyer and politician, was born at Corfu April 3 1846, and was educated at Cheltenham and Balliol College, Oxford, where he had a distinguished career, winning the Ireland scholarship in 1868. He was called to the bar in 1871, and in 1880 entered politics as Liberal member for Hereford. In 1882 he became a Q.C., and having in 1885 lost his seat at Hereford, was returned in 1886 for Dumfries Burghs, retaining the seat until 1905. In 1894 he was for a few months Solicitor-General and was knighted, and during 1894-5 was Attorney-General. From 1899 to 1906 he was counsel to the university of Oxford. On the formation of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Government in 1905, Sir Robert Reid became Lord Chancellor, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Loreburn. To him, while Chancellor, the passage of the Court of Criminal Appeal Act (1907) was largely due. In 1912 he resigned on grounds of health. Lord Loreburn was created an earl in July 1911. He published Capture at Sea (1913) and How the War Came (1919).