Robert Burdon Stoker

Robert Burdon Stoker (19 June 1859 – 4 September 1919) was a British shipping magnate and Conservative politician.

Shipping career

Stoker was born in north-east England and educated at Liverpool College. Aged 17 he was given his first ship, a 500-ton coaster, by his father. He entered a Liverpool sailing ship firm, involved in the American and Canadian trades, and became its manager. In 1882, he was invited by Christopher Furness, a director of the Furness, Withy (FW) shipping group, to become one of his aides.

Stoker opened an office in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for the start of the Furness Line's operations to North America and within two years the line was operating ten ships on the North Atlantic. Stoker was asked to open an FW office in London in 1890, by which time he owned a 3,500-ton tramp steamer named the Sydenham and later the steamer Knutsford. On the death in 1912 of Lord Furness, as he had become, Stoker was elected as chairman of ML, remaining in office until his death.

Stoker was also a director of the Manchester Ship Canal Company and was elected president of the Manchester Steamship Owners Association. In 1917 he became President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Stoker had lived in Knutsford.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 reorganised Manchester's constituencies, and Stoker was elected as first MP for the new Rusholme constituency.

R B Stoker died at his home in September 1919, aged 60 after a long illness.