Rowland Prothero, 1st Baron Ernle

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Rowland Edmund Prothero, 1st Baron Ernle PC MVO (6 September 1851 - 1 July 1937) was a British administrator, author, and politician.

The son of Rev. Canon Prothero, Rector of Whippingham, and brother of Sir George Prothero, he was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained a 1st class degree in modern history in 1875. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford 1875-1891, and was Proctor in 1883-1884. He was awarded the MVO in 1901.

He published The Pioneers and Progress of English Farming in 1888 and edited Quarterly Review from 1893-9. From 1898-1918 he was chief agent for the 11th Duke of Bedford.

He contested Biggleswade in 1910 and was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxford University at a by-election in 1914, holding the seat until 1919. He held office as President of the Board of Agriculture from 1916-19. In that role he introduced a guaranteed price for wheat.

He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1916 and raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Ernle in 1919. The barony became extinct upon his death.

His other works include Life and Correspondence of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, published in 1893, and Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1898-1901)

[edit] Sources

• Concise Dictionary of National Biography
• Who Was Who

Political offices
Preceded by Earl of Crawford	President of the Board of Agriculture 1916–1919	Succeeded by Baron Lee of Fareham