James Francis Hatfield Harter (1854 - 20 October 1910) was an English landowner and administrator.
Biography
Harter owned Cranfield Court in Bedfordshire.[1] He was educated at Eton School and Magdalene College, Cambridge.[2]
Harter served as Justice of the Peace for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1885.[3] He was a member of the first Bedfordshire County Council on its establishment in April 1889,[4] and twice President of the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society.
In the 1890s and 1900s, Harter was a major shareholder in British railway development.[5]
Harter was an army officer in the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars, a Yeomanry regiment, where he was appointed major on 17 June 1896.[6] He was lieutenant-colonel in command of the regiment from 30 January 1900 until he resigned on 20 September 1902, when he was granted the honorary rank of colonel.[7]
He died at Cranfield Court on 20 October 1910.[2] After his death in 1910, Cranfield Village Hall was built in his memory the following year, and opened in 1912.[8]
Family
Harter married in 1887 Violet Loftus, daughter of Captain Douglas Loftus, Grenadier Guards. They had a daughter Violet Harter, who married Esmé Arkwright.[2]