Arthur Henderson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 1940s government minister, see Arthur Henderson, Baron Rowley. For other people, see Arthur Henderson (disambiguation).

Robert Crewe-Milnes
Parliamentary offices
Member of Parliament
for
John Edmund Swan
Personal details
Born13 September 1863
Glasgow, Scotland
Died20 October 1935(1935-10-20) (aged 72)
London, England
Political partyLabour

Arthur Henderson (13 September 1863 – 20 October 1935) was a British

trades unions
rejected his emphasis on arbitration and conciliation, and thwarted his goal of unifying the Labour Party and the trade unions.

Early life

Arthur Henderson was born at 10 Paterson Street,

North-East of England, where Agnes later married Robert Heath.[1]

Henderson worked at Robert Stephenson and Sons' General Foundry Works from the age of twelve. After finishing his apprenticeship there aged seventeen, he moved to

foundryman
) in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Henderson became a

Local Preacher
. After he lost his job in 1884, he concentrated on preaching.

Union leader

In 1892, Henderson entered the complex world of trade union politics when he was elected as a paid organiser for the

Friendly Society of Iron Founders. He also became a representative on the North East Conciliation Board. Henderson believed that strikes caused more harm than they were worth and tried to avoid them whenever he could. For this reason, he opposed the formation of the General Federation of Trade Unions
, as he was convinced that it would lead to more strikes.

The Labour Party

Henderson (on left) in 1906, with other leading figures in the party

In 1900 Henderson was one of the 129 trade union and socialist delegates who passed

Darlington, County Durham.[2]

In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party and won 29 seats at the general election. In 1908, when Hardie resigned as Leader of the Labour Party, Henderson was elected to replace him. He remained Leader until his own resignation two years later, in 1910.

Cabinet Minister

In 1914 the

First World War broke out and Ramsay MacDonald resigned from the Leadership of the Labour Party in protest. Henderson was elected to replace him. The two became enemies.[3]

In 1915, following Prime Minister

President of the Board of Education
.

In 1916,

Labour National Executive Committee had rejected the Second International's request for a meeting of European socialist parties on the war in Stockholm, but after Henderson convinced it to give provisional support after visiting the Russian Republic as an envoy and recognizing that the Russian Provisional Government would collapse if the war continued.[6]

Henderson turned his attention to building a strong constituency-based support network for the Labour Party. Previously, it had little national organisation, based largely on branches of unions and socialist societies. Working with Ramsay MacDonald and Sidney Webb, Henderson in 1918 established a national network of constituency organisations. They operated separately from trade unions and the National Executive Committee and were open to everyone sympathetic to the party's policies. Secondly, Henderson secured the adoption of a comprehensive statement of party policies, as drafted by

Sidney Webb. Entitled "Labour and the New Social Order," it remained the basic Labour platform until 1950. It proclaimed a socialist party whose principles included a guaranteed minimum standard of living for everyone, nationalisation of industry, and heavy taxation of large incomes and of wealth.[7]

The "Coupon Election" and the 1920s

Henderson lost his seat in the "Coupon Election" of 14 December 1918, which had been announced within twenty-four hours of the end of hostilities and which resulted in a landslide victory for a coalition formed by Lloyd George.[8] Henderson returned to Parliament in 1919 after winning a by-election in Widnes. He then became Labour's Chief Whip.

Kerensky, and for this reason he is helping us."[9]
[10]

Henderson

unseated at the general election of 1923. He returned to Parliament just two months later after winning another by-election in Burnley
.

In 1924, Henderson was appointed as Home Secretary in the first-ever Labour government, led by MacDonald. This government was defeated later the same year and lost the general election that followed.

Having been re-elected in 1924, Henderson refused to challenge MacDonald for the party leadership. Worried about factionalism in the Labour Party, he published a pamphlet, Labour and the Nation, in which he attempted to clarify the party's goals.

Foreign Secretary

In 1929, Labour formed

First World War. Diplomatic relations were re-established with the Soviet Union and Henderson guaranteed Britain's full support to the League of Nations.[11]

The MacDonald "betrayal"

The

Philip Snowden proposed cuts in unemployment benefits. Henderson rejected that solution and became the leader of nearly half the Cabinet. The Labour Cabinet decided to resign. King George V implored MacDonald to remain and form an all-party National Government that would make the budget cuts. MacDonald agreed on 24 August 1931 and formed an emergency National Government, with members from all parties. The new cabinet had four Labourites (now called the "National Labour Organisation") who stood with Macdonald, plus four Conservatives and two Liberals. Labour unions were strongly opposed and the Labour Party officially repudiated the new National government. It expelled MacDonald and his supporters from the party. Henderson cast the only vote against the expulsions. Against his inclinations, Henderson accepted the leadership of the main Labour Party and led it into the general election on 27 October against the cross-party National coalition. It was a disastrous result for Labour, which was reduced to a small minority of 52. MacDonald won the largest landslide in British electoral history. Yet again Henderson lost his seat, at Burnley. The following year, he relinquished the party leadership.[12]

Later career

World Disarmament Conference
on 2 February 1932

Henderson returned to Parliament after winning a by-election at Clay Cross, achieving the unique feat of being elected five times at by-elections in constituencies where he had not previously been the MP. He holds the record for the greatest number of comebacks from losing a previous seat.

Henderson spent the rest of his life trying to halt the gathering storm of

Lord Mayor of Newcastle on 3 April 2013.[13] A man was subsequently jailed for the theft; the medal has never been recovered.[14]

Plaque dedicated to Henderson, his wife and sons at Golders Green Crematorium

Henderson died in 1935, aged 72, and was cremated at

Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own). His surviving sons also became Labour politicians: second son William was granted the title of Baron Henderson in 1945, while his third son, Arthur
, was created Baron Rowley in 1966.

The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People's History Museum in Manchester holds the papers of Arthur Henderson in their collection, spanning from 1915 to 1935.[15]

Works

See also

Citations

  1. ^ "Arthur Henderson".
  2. ^ "Arthur Henderson: a Labour pioneer". The Northern Echo.
  3. ^ Christopher Howard, "MacDonald, Henderson, and the Outbreak of War, 1914." Historical Journal 20.4 (1977): 871-891. online
  4. ISBN 0713103167
    .
  5. ^ UK National Archives, CAB 23-3, pg. 372 of 545
  6. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5
    , retrieved 16 June 2022
  7. ^ Bentley B. Gilbert, Britain since 1918 (1980) p 49.
  8. ^ Katz, Liane (4 April 2005) "Women and the Welsh Wizard". Politics.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 12 September 2015.
  9. ISBN 0300076622
    .
  10. ^ "Письмо Г.В. Чичерину. 10 февраля 1922 г." [Letter to G. V. Chicherin, 10 February 2022]. docs.historyrussia.org. 15 July 2023. Archived from the original on 15 July 2023.
  11. ISBN 9781349006755
    .
  12. ^ Andrew Thorpe, "Arthur Henderson and the British political crisis of 1931." Historical Journal 31#1 (1988): 117-139. in JSTOR
  13. ^ "Nobel Peace Prize medal stolen in Newcastle". BBC News. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  14. ^ "Newcastle man jailed for Nobel Peace Prize medal theft". BBC News. 2 October 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  15. ^ Collection Catalogues and Descriptions, Labour History Archive and Study Centre, archived from the original on 13 January 2015, retrieved 20 January 2015

Sources

External links

Wikisource has the text of a 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article about "Arthur Henderson".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Henderson.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Barnard Castle
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Newcastle upon Tyne East
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 Succeeded by
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