Roebuck John Arthur

Roebuck, John Arthur (1801-79), politician and reformer, was born at Madras, studied law, and was called to the bar in 1831. His father was in the Indian Civil Service, and his grandfather was a metallurgist of note. Some of Roebuck's early life was spent in Canada, but he came to England in 1824, and entered Parliament as an advanced Liberal. He sat first for Bath and then for Sheffield, and was a most active politician, causing the downfall of the Aberdeen Government in 1855 by his committee of inquiry into the state of the army before Sebastopol. His denunciation of trades unionism deprived him of much of his popularity, and latterly he voted with the Tories. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1879.