Chalmers, Robert

Epithet: of Add MS 35510

Robert Chalmers was born in London in 1858. He was educated at the City of London School and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1882, after passing his civil service examinations, he was appointed a clerk in the Treasury, and by 1903, had been promoted to assistant secretary. In 1907, he accepted the post of chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, where he was largely responsible for the formation of the Board of Customs and Excise. Chalmers was knighted in 1908, and in 1911, he returned to the Treasury as permanent secretary and auditor of the civil list. Two years later, Chalmers was appointed governor of Ceylon [Sri Lanka], returning to the Treasury as joint permanent secretary in 1916. Almost immediately, he accepted the temporary post of under-secretary to the chief secretary of Ireland, resuming his former office at the Treasury later in the year.

On his retirement in 1919, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Chalmers of Northiam and was appointed master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. From 1920 to 1922, he served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He died in Oxford in 1938.