Robert Patten

Robert Patten (18 January 1859 – 17 September 1940) was an English-born Australian politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1908 to 1910 and a Commonwealth Liberal Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the electorate of Hume from 1913 to 1917.

Born in Brixton, London, Patten migrated to Australia while a teenager. He became a teacher from 1883 in a succession of rural New South Wales schools, first at Ournie temporarily, then at Menindee, then headmaster at Wallaroo from 1885 to 1891, and finally at Bolwarra (near Maitland) from 1891 to 1897. He then became a farmer at Comobella (near Wellington. He joined the Farmers and Settlers Association in 1902 and rose through its ranks from Comobella branch chairman, to its executive council in 1904, and then serving as its president from 1908 to 1913. He also served as president of the Cobbora Shire in 1908.

In May 1917, he was appointed as a manager by the Commonwealth Government to the London staff of the Australian Munitions and War Workers. He relocated to Victoria 1928 and lived at Barwon Heads from 1932. He died at Geelong in 1940 and was buried at Geelong's Eastern Cemetery.