Sir Robert William Perks, 1st Baronet (24 April 1849 – 30 November 1934) was a British Liberal politician.
He was the son of George Thomas Perks (1819–1877), a Wesleyan Methodist preacher (who served as minister of Wesley's Chapel from 1862 to 1865).[1] He was educated at Kingswood School and at King's College London (1867–71). Failing to enter the Indian Civil Service, he qualified as a solicitor in 1875 and in 1876 became a partner of Henry Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton.[1] [2]
He was elected to Parliament at the 1892 general election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Louth. Perks was a prominent member of the Liberal Imperialists and its successor the Liberal League, in both organisations acting as treasurer.
Perks saw himself as "the member [of Parliament] for Nonconformity" and collaborated closely with Hugh Price Hughes and the leader of the pro-Rosebery Imperialist faction to establish a Nonconformist Parliamentary Council in 1898. In his role as Treasurer of the National Council of Free Churches, he opposed the Education Act 1902, albeit unsuccessfully, but his endeavours played a role in the Liberal victory of 1906.[1]
In 1898, Perks proposed the creation of the Wesleyan Methodist Twentieth Century Fund (also known as the 'One Million Guinea Fund') which aimed to raise one million guineas (£1.1s. or £1.05) to build a church in Central London. The fund had raised £1,073,682 by the time it closed in 1909, part of which was used to purchase the former Royal Aquarium site for the construction of the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.[3]
He was made a baronet in 1908, and retired from Parliament at the 1910 general election.
In 1932 at the age of 83 Perks was elected vice-president of the Methodist Conference as the man most responsible for Methodist Union.[4]
He died in 1934 aged 85 and is buried in Brookwood Cemetery. His son, Robert Malcolm Mewburn Perks,[1] succeeded him in the baronetcy. His daughter, Edith Mary, married Sir Bertram Allen in 1908.