Robert Finch

Robert Finch may refer to:

Robert Finch (Lord Mayor)

Sir Robert Finch (born 1944 in Ootacamund, India) is a British businessman, lawyer, and former Lord Mayor of London.

Born in British India, Finch was educated at Felsted School and the College of Law. He joined Linklaters in 1969, progressed to Partner in 1974, and Head of Real Estate from 1997 to 1999. Linklaters' most Senior Partner, he left the firm on 1 July 2005 to become Chairman of property developer Liberty International, overseeing its transition to a REIT when the status was first introduced.

He was Alderman for the City Ward of Coleman Street, having first been elected to represent Coleman Street in 1992. He became a Sheriff in 1999, Master of the Solicitors' Company in 2000, and Lord Mayor of London in 2003.

In 2008, following a change to the voting system to the Court of Aldermen, he was successfully challenged by a previously unheard-of young lawyer, Matthew Richardson (now Alderman), in a close-fought campaign. Finch admitted to having overspent on the campaign, by not declaring the use of Liberty's company car and chauffeur. When challenged, in Finch and another v Richardson (2008), a judge ruled that ignorance of the law could constitute by virtue of inadvertence a defence in electoral law: a point that hitherto existed in Scots law and Northern Ireland law, but not in English law.

Robert Finch (priest)

Robert Poole Finch (1724-1803) was an English divine.

Life

Finch was the son of the Rev. Richard Finch. He was born at Greenwich 3 March 1723-4, entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1736, and was admitted a member of Peterhouse, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1743, M.A. in 1747 and D.D. in 1772. He was ordained as a deacon in 1744, and appointed a curate at Greenwich in 1748. On becoming a priest he was chosen to be chaplain of Guy's Hospital, a position he held for 37 years. In 1755 he was appointed to the lectureship of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, which he continued to hold to the time of his death.

He was a preacher of some eminence. He published numerous sermons, and, in 1788, a treatise entitled Considerations upon the Use and Abuse of Oaths judicially taken, which passed through many editions and became a standard work among the publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In it he insisted that oaths should be administered with solemnity, condemned common swearing, and advocated the death sentence for the crime of perjury.