Ambrose, Robert (1855–1940), medical doctor and politician, was born at Limerick, son of Michael Ambrose of Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. He studied at QCG and QCC (BA 1876) before qualifying as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) in 1883 and practising surgery in the East End of London. Through the influence of John Dillon (qv), leader of the anti-Parnellite nationalists, he was returned as MP for Mayo West in a by-election (8 August 1893). In parliament he introduced the first compulsory land-purchase bill (1897) and advocated an ‘All-red’ (‘all-British’) route from London to Australia (1907–8). His writings include A plea for the industrial regeneration of Ireland (1909), an Anglo-South-American trade directory, and works on peasant proprietorship and agricultural cooperation. He did not seek re-election in 1910; his political career was over, though in 1918 he stood unsuccessfully for Labour in Whitechapel, London. Robert Ambrose died on 13 June 1940 at Wells, Somerset. He and his wife Mary Josephine (née Miller-Ryan) of Castleconnell, Co. Limerick, had three sons and one daughter. Dr Daniel Ambrose (1843–95), MP for Louth South 1892–5, was a cousin.
Sources
Queen's University Calendar, 1882; Times (London), 13 June 1941; Thom IWW; WWW; F. S. L. Lyons, The Irish parliamentary party, 1890–1910 (1951); Walker, Election results; Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees, Who's who of British members of parliament, iii (1978), 6