Robert McFarlane died in Ottawa in 1872 while still in office as the local member of Parliament

In 1872, the Town of Stratford and the federal riding of South Perth were saddened by the sudden death in Ottawa of their young member of Parliament, Robert McFarlane. A Liberal, McFarlane had been re-elected in September 1867 to represent South Perth in the first Parliament of the Dominion of Canada. He was 37 when he died in office. One of his closest personal friends, Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald, the joint premier of Canada before Confederation and the first premier of Ontario, died on the same day.

Called to the bar in 1857, Robert McFarlane formed a law partnership with Daniel Home Lizars who became a Perth County judge. His next partner was John Idington, who became a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. McFarlane entered Perth County politics as a Reform candidate in 1862. He ran unsuccessfully against Thomas Mayne Daly in a byelection in Perth County. In 1863, he defeated Daly and represented Perth in the........

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