#1187, Robert Croft BOURNE

As a child Bourne lost the sight of one eye in a game of rounders. He was educated at Eton where he won the School Sculling in 1906 and then at New College, Oxford where he stroked the winning Oxford boats in 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912, being President in the last two years. He also won the University Sculls in 1910 and the University Fours in 1911 and went head of the river in 1911-12. He stroked the New College eight which won silver for Great Britain at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. He also won the Stewards' Cup at Henley in 1912, 1913 and 1914.

Bourne became a barrister and was commissioned into the Herefordshire Regiment in the first World War. He had one hand crippled and a lung seriously injured at Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles in August 1915.

In 1920 he became JP for Herefordshire and in 1921 a member of the city council. He was elected Conservative MP for Oxford in June 1924 and served as Deputy Speaker of the Commons from 1931. He died in office in 1938 aged 50, suddenly falling dead while walking on the moors near Strontian, Argyll.

Anthony Cobbold
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