# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Robson, William Snowdon

​ROBSON, WILLIAM SNOWDON, Baron Robson, of Jesmond (1852–1918), lawyer and politician, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne 10 September 1852, the third son of Robert Robson, J.P., a merchant and philanthropist of that city, greatly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, by his first wife, Anne Snowdon. William Robson was educated privately. After passing the law examinations with a view to becoming a solicitor, he went to Caius College, Cambridge, and took a second class in the moral science tripos in 1877. His advanced radical opinions and his inability to play games (the result of an accident at school) did not lessen his popularity, and one of his college contemporaries wrote of him that though they abhorred his political principles they ‘would have voted with him to a man whatever line he took’. After leaving Cambridge Robson became a member of the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in 1880. He joined the North-Eastern circuit and soon established a reputation in shipping, industrial, and commercial litigation. His personal gift of advocacy, his lucidity in presenting his case, and his skill in cross-examination enabled him to take silk in 1892. Among his pupils in King's Bench Walk were Cosmo Gordon Lang, afterwards archbishop of York, and several other distinguished men.
Robson entered politics as liberal member for Bow and Bromley in 1885, but lost his seat the next year through ​supporting Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy. Though he had made his mark in the House he failed to win Middlesbrough in 1892; but in 1895 he was returned for South Shields, the seat which he held till 1910 when his career in the House of Commons ended. Robson was responsible for placing the Children's Act on the statute book. The principle of raising the minimum age of ‘half-timers’ in the cotton mills had been admitted by the government in the Education Bill of 1896, but it did not become law until Robson brought in his Bill in 1899. Even then the government opposed it, and the Bill was only carried by the eloquence and tenacity with which Robson pleaded the cause of the children.
Meanwhile Robson's reputation as an advocate was increasing: he was made recorder of Newcastle in 1895 and a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1899. The part which he played in Smith v. Charles Baker & Sons (1891), the Hexham election petition (1892), Allen v. Flood (1895), the Penrhyn quarry dispute (1903), the Sackville case (1909–1910), and many others, pointed to his rapid promotion.
During the South African War Robson was one of the liberal imperialistic group which gave active support to the British cause. He took a prominent part in the campaign of 1904–1905 against the fiscal proposals of Mr. Chamberlain, and his thorough knowledge of political economy was a great asset to the cause of free trade. When Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman took office in 1905, Robson was made solicitor-general and knighted, and on the death in 1908 of Sir John Lawson Walton [q.v.] he became attorney-general. In the strenuous times that followed, the great burden of piloting Mr. Lloyd George's budget of 1909 through the House fell on Robson. Week after week, during the committee stage of the Bill, he rarely left his seat on the front bench, and at the cost of his own health saved the budget from shipwreck.
The culminating success of Robson's legal career was his skilful presentation of the British case at the Atlantic fisheries arbitration at the Hague in 1910. Certain coastal fishing rights had caused a dispute, which had lasted nearly a century, between the United States on the one hand and Canada and Newfoundland on the other. The Canadian government appointed Sir Robert Finlay (afterwards lord chancellor) to act for it, and Robson was chosen to represent the imperial government. With him were associated Sir Arthur Frederick Peterson (afterwards judge of the High Court) and Raymond Asquith, eldest son of the prime minister. The final award met with approval from all parties, and the government of Canada attributed the credit to Robson's infinite pains in studying the early treaties and presenting the case in a fresh light in which the historical evidence led to a clear and conclusive decision. An unanimous vote of thanks from the Canadian parliament and the G.C.M.G. from the British government were his reward (1911). In the previous year he had been made a privy councillor. His arduous life at the bar and in the House had told on his health, and he accepted a life peerage as lord of appeal in ordinary on the resignation of Lord Collins in 1910; but a serious illness in 1912 forced him to resign, and he died at Battle, Sussex, 11 September 1918 at the age of sixty-six.
Robson's life was given to the public service, and though he never ranked as a great lawyer or as a man of deep learning, his absolute honesty and high moral standard earned him the respect of his colleagues and the deep affection of his constituents. One of his most distinguished contemporaries described him as ‘the most valiant of comrades, the truest of friends, the most lovable of men’. In spite of his hard fighting he is said never to have made an enemy, and even when his work was overwhelming and his health failing he was always ready to give ‘ungrudging help and counsel’ to those who asked for it.
Durham University conferred an honorary D.C.L. on Robson in 1906, and his own college gave him an honorary fellowship and placed his arms in the window of the college hall between those of Lord Esher and Lord Thurlow.
Robson married in 1887 Catherine, daughter of Charles Burge, of Portland Place, London; she took an active share in her husband's political life. They had one son and three daughters.
[The Times, 12 September 1918; The Caian (magazine of Gonville and Caius College) vol. xxviii, 1917–1918; Annual Register; Liberal Magazine, 1905–1912; private information.]
N. L. H.