Robert Anderson Mowat, was a British judge and diplomat, serving in China and Japan.
He was educated in Edinburgh before attending London University, which nominated him for the Foreign Office exam.
In 1866, he was appointed Acting Law Secretary of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan in Shanghai.
[3] Due to Goodwin's ill-health and death, he held the position for most of the time until 1878 when a new Chief Judge, George French, arrived in Shanghai.
[5] In his position as Judge for Japan, Mowat tried (with a jury) Edith Carew for the murder of her husband in 1896 in Yokohama.