Herbert Mercer

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Colonel Herbert Mercer (7 January 1862 – 8 February 1944) was a British Army officer and Conservative politician who sat as an MP in the 1920s.

Mercer was born in Boxley, Kent, the son of Richard Mercer, a banker. He attended Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge (entered 1880). He began his military career in April 1881 as a second lieutenant in the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Edinburgh militia, and in January 1884 became a lieutenant in the 3rd Dragoon Guards. He rose to major and served in the Boer War. In World War I he commanded the 3rd Reserve Regiment and later reached the rank of colonel.

In politics, Mercer was elected MP for the Sudbury division of Suffolk as a Conservative in the 1922 general election, but lost the seat in 1923 to Liberal John Frederick Loverseed.

Mercer married Elizabeth Bower in 1906, the daughter of Thomas Bower of Stradishall Place, Suffolk. He died on 8 February 1944 in Rotherfield, Sussex, and was buried at Stradishall.