Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara

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Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara, GCIE (June 11, 1827 – September 3, 1902) was a British Conservative Party politician. The third son of the 5th Earl of Mayo, he was educated at Hall Place School in Bexley, Kent, and Trinity College Dublin. Called to the bar in 1852, he practised as a barrister for a number of years before being elected Conservative Member of Parliament for King's Lynn in 1868. Six years later, he became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Disraeli's government, and again held this post in Lord Salisbury's short administration from 1885 to 1886.

In 1886, Bourke was sent to Madras as the Governor there, and was the following year appointed GCIE and created Baron Connemara, of Connemara in the County of Galway. In 1890, he was divorced by his first wife, Lady Susan Georgiana Broun-Ramsay, daughter of the Marquess of Dalhousie, and returned to Britain that same year.

Lord Connemara died aged 75 in London, and was buried in the city's Kensal Green Cemetery. His barony became extinct at his death.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Thomas Buxton and Edward Stanley	Member of Parliament for King's Lynn 2-seat consituency until 1885 (with Edward Stanley to 1869; Lord Claud John Hamilton 1869–1880; Sir William Ffolkes 1880–1885) 1868–1886	Succeeded by Alexander Weston Jarvis
Political offices
Preceded by Viscount Enfield	Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1874–1880	Succeeded by Sir Charles Dilke
Preceded by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice	Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1885–1886	Succeeded by James Bryce
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (new creation)	Baron Connemara 1887–1902	Succeeded by (extinct)