Harold Roberts (politician)

Harold Roberts (23 August 1884 – 28 Sept 1950) was a British solicitor and Unionist (Conservative) politician. After a long career in local government in Birmingham, he represented the city in the House of Commons for the last five years of his life.

Roberts was the son William Henry Roberts, and was educated privately before qualifying as a solicitor in 1906. He gained his LL.B degree in 1907, and then practised law in London and in Leicester, before moving to Birmingham in 1911.

He was first elected to Birmingham City Council in 1922, and remained a councillor for over two decades, becoming Lord Mayor of Birmingham in 1936, when he was made an alderman. He chaired the council's Public Health Committee from 1936 to 1930, and the Salaries, Wages and Labour Committee from 1941 to 1943. During his time as mayor he launched the final appeal for the city's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which raised the £250,000 needed to allow construction to be completed.

He was also a life governor of the University of Birmingham.

At the 1945 general election, Roberts was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Handsworth division of Birmingham. He stood as a Unionist, rather than as a Conservative; the Liberal Unionist tradition lingered in Birmingham long after the 1912 merger of the two parties, with memories of Joseph Chamberlain still strong.

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