Robert Hunter (National Trust) Robert Hunter (National Trust) Sir Robert Hunter (27 October 1844 – 6 November 1913) was a solicitor, civil servant and co-founder of the National Trust. From the 1860s Hunter was interested in conservation of public open spaces, and worked with other pioneers in this field, including Octavia Hill and Hardwicke Rawnsley. After acting as adviser to Hill in her campaigns to save Hampstead Heath and other open spaces, he worked with Rawnsley to save land in the English Lake District from industrial development. In 1893 the three campaigners agreed to set up a national body to acquire vulnerable properties and
Hardwicke Rawnsley Rawnsley was elected as a member of the new Cumberland County Council and became chairman of its Highways Committee. He stood out against the construction of roads over lakeland passes, secured controls over mining pollution, and promoted adequate signposting of footpaths. Other targets for his reforming zeal included the brewing industry and in later years the cinema, where he was strongly against the depiction of sex and violence. While he opposed what he saw as excessive numbers of public houses, he was not a prohibitionist. In the last month of his life, after returning from a tour of French vineyards,