Henry Robertson

Henry Robertson (11 June 1816 – 22 March 1888) was a Scottish mining engineer and prolific railway builder, industrialist and Liberal Party politician.

The son of Duncan Robertson, he was born in Banff, Aberdeenshire on 16 January 1816, and educated at King's College, Aberdeen University, and graduated M.A.

On the offer of a Scottish bank to invest in the North Wales mineral district in 1842, Robertson ventured south, and purchased Brymbo Iron works and colliery, formerly owned by John Wilkinson.

Robertson decided for the venture to succeed he needed to build a railway from Brymbo to Connah's Quay to export the coal and iron.

Following his death in 1889, his son Sir Henry Beyer Robertson took over and would later (1930s) rescue the plant from bankruptcy following the great depression, and install new blast furnaces.

He served as Liberal MP for Shrewsbury from 1862 to 1865 and from 1874 to 1885, and Merioneth from 1885 to 1886, resigning his seat as a result of his opposition to Gladstone's Home Rule Bill.