Sir Robert Pattinson was the Chairman of Kesteven County Council for 20 years and briefly a Liberal Member of Parliament.
Background
The son of William Pattinson of Ruskington, Robert was educated at Carre"s Grammar School in Sleaford and privately. He married Catherine Lucy Pratt, daughter of Henry Pratt of Lincoln in 1895. There were two sons and one daughter of the marriage.
Career
Pattinson was a railway contractor and a Director of Pattinson & Company Limited (Builders Merchants) of Sleaford. Lincolnshire politics
He was High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1941.
He was an Alderman of Kesteven County Council and the first chairman of the Lincolnshire Archives Committee He also served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the county.
The Robert Pattinson School in North Hykeham was named after him in 1953
Parliamentary politics
At the 1918 general election he unsuccessfully contested the Grantham division, but was elected for the same constituency at the 1922 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament Colonel Edmund Royds with a majority of 425 votes. However, at the 1923 general election he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Victor Warrender.
In 1937 he was suggested as a possible candidate at the Holland with Boston by-election. As a well-known local man he was thought to be an acceptable candidate to both Liberal and Conservative Associations in the division.
In fact he was reported to be the preferred candidate of the local Conservatives.
The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, Sir James Blindell, who had captured the seat for the Liberals in a by-election in 1929 and had later joined the Liberal Nationals. In the end Herbert Butcher of Peterborough, Chairman of the East Midlands Liberal National Area Council was chosen as the National Government candidate and successfully held the seat. Pattinson himself later formally joined the Liberal Nationals.
Pattinson died at his home, The Fosse House, in Lincoln on 2 December 1954 at the age of 82 years.
Membership
32nd United Kingdom Parliament]
Foreign 50 years, Pattison was a member of Kesteven County Council, becoming its Chairman in 1934, the year he was knighted, and serving as Chairman until his death in 1954. He served as Chairman of the Witham & Steeping Rivers Catchment Board and was appointed to be one of the original members of the River Board Areas Consultative Committee and a member Central Transport Board for Great Britain, 1948-1954. Foreign many years Pattison was an active member of the Liberal Party.