Robert Malcolm Kerr

Mr Commissioner Robert Malcolm Kerr LL.D (5 June 1821–21 November 1902), was a British judge of the late Victorian era.

Born in Glasgow, the son of John Kerr (1791-1853), a writer for The Signet, and Elizabeth (née Malcolm), 'Commissioner Kerr' was educated at the University of Glasgow and then become an Advocate at the Faculty of Advocates in his native Scotland in 1843 before moving to London where he became a barrister in Lincoln's Inn in 1848. By 1851 Kerr was a Deputy County Court Judge on the Northern Circuit, and also lectured on Law for the Incorporated Law Society; he also edited an edition of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. In 1857 he was awarded the degree of LL.D by the University of Glasgow. In 1859 he was the last person to be elected by the Common Council of the City of London as a Judge of the Sheriff's Court of the City of London and then became a Judge at the Guildhall Court in the City of London for 43 years. He twice failed to get into Parliament, and despite being offered an extremely generous pension, he refused to retire from his position at the City of London Court.

The written biography accompanying his 1900 Vanity Fair caricature said of him:

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