Sir Robert Harvey, 1st Baronet of Langley Park

Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, 1st Baronet, of Langley Park (17 November 1825 – March 1887), was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1863 and 1885.

Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1885.

Harvey was the son of Robert Harvey of Langley Park, Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and his wife Jane Jemima Collins, daughter of John Raw Collins of Hatch Court, Somerset. His father was an illegitimate son of Sir Robert Bateson-Harvey, 1st Bt. (died 1825). Harvey was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. He was a Captain in the 5th Buckinghamshire Rifle Volunteers and then in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeoman Cavalry. He was a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire.[1] The Langley Park estate in Buckinghamshire was bought by his grandfather in 1788, and passed down to him.[2]

In 1863 Harvey was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckinghamshire and held the seat until 1868. In 1868 he was created a baronet of Langley Park.[3][4][5] He was re-elected MP for Buckinghamshire in 1874 and held the seat until 1885.[6]

Harvey married firstly in 1855 Diana Jane Creyke, daughter of Ven. Stephen Creyke, Archdeacon of York, and secondly in 1874 Magdalene Breadalbane Anderson, daughter of Sir John Pringle, 5th Baronet and widow of Alexander Anderson of New South Wales.

In an online article written by Myles Dungan - [7] and dated 22 September 2017, Sir Robert Bateson Harvey is referred to as the local landlord for Inishtrahull Island, Co Donegal.Harvey had been able to procure the use of a Royal Navy Vessel HMS Wasp which in 1884, was sent on a mission to the island to evict tenants who were in rent arrears totalling some £72. During the vessel's passage to the Island from the port of Sligo, the ship hit rocks off Tory Island, Co Donegal on 22 September 1884 and sank. 52 persons lives were lost including crew, Royal Irish Constabulary, court officials and bailiffs. Only six men survived the tragedy.