Victor Robert Hewlett Yarnell (October 5, 1919 – January 22, 2015) was a Canadian-born American politician who served as the Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, as a Democrat between 1968 and 1972.

[1][2] Yarnell was born on October 5, 1919, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to an Irish father and an English mother.

[3] He was educated in England as a boarder at Bedford Modern School after which he served in the British Army throughout World War II seeing action in Dunkirk and taking part in the Normandy landings.

[3] After the war, Yarnell moved to the United States attending Albright College and later graduating M.A.

[1] For the following twelve years Yarnell taught government at Muhlenberg High School[4] until his election as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 1963 session although deciding not to seek reelection to the House in 1964.