Robert Booth (24 May 1851 – 2 March 1901) was an Australian politician. He was born in Bathurst to farmers Patrick and Elizabeth Booth, and attended school locally and then at

Cooks River The Cooks River, a semi-mature tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, is a tributary of Botany Bay, located in south-eastern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The course of the long urban waterway has been altered to accommodate various deve ...

. He became a solicitor, establishing a practice in

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

. He was also involved in agriculture and local politics, becoming an alderman and later mayor of Dubbo. In 1891 he was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

as the

Free Trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

member for

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. He did not contest the 1894 election and made no further runs for colony-wide office. Booth died in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 1901. He shot himself in the head with a pistol while being driven through The Domain in a horse-drawn cab. A coronial inquest returned a verdict of suicide, and evidence was heard that he had been depressed and suffered from insomnia for some time before his death."MR. ROBERT BOOTH'S DEATH."
'' The Evening News'', 5 March 1901.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Robert 1851 births 1901 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Free Trade Party politicians 19th-century Australian politicians Australian politicians who committed suicide Suicides by firearm in Australia Deaths by firearm in New South Wales