Robert Harcourt

Sir Robert John Rolston Harcourt, JP (1902 – 25 August 1969) was a Northern Irish unionist politician.

Background Robert Harcourt, known as John, became the director of F. E. Harcourt and Company coal merchants. He was High Sheriff of Belfast in 1949, and later in the year unsuccessfully stood as the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) candidate for South Down. Soon after this, John William Nixon, the independent Unionist MP for Belfast Woodvale, died. Harcourt stood in the ensuing by-election on 4 April 1950 and was elected.

In 1955, Harcourt was elected Lord Mayor of Belfast, a position which carried with it an ex officio position in the Senate of Northern Ireland. He served until 1957, when he was knighted.

Harcourt was an active member of the Orange Order and a Member of the prestigious Belfast lodge, Royal York LOL 145.