Henry Broadhurst

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Henry Broadhurst c. 1895
Henry Broadhurst, c. 1905

See also Harry Broadhurst
"the working-man Member"
Broadhurst as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, August 1884

Henry Broadhurst (13 April 1840 – 11 October 1911) was a leading early British

Lib-Lab politician who sat in the House of Commons
for various Midlands constituencies between 1880 and 1906.

Broadhurst was born in

Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster
.

In 1872, Broadhurst was elected as the Chair of a Masons' Committee during an industrial dispute. After achieving a major victory, Broadhurst began working full-time for the

Stonemasons Union. He also became the union's delegate to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and was elected to its Parliamentary Committee. In 1873, he became the secretary of the Labour Representation League
.

At the

Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC
, the post which was later to become the General Secretaryship.

At the

Royal Commission
on the housing of the working class.

In

Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in the Liberal government, the first person from a working-class or labour movement background to hold a ministerial post. He was the first minister to be granted permission not to attend levees. Following his appointment, he resigned from his TUC post. William Ewart Gladstone
attempted but failed to have his ministerial salary reduced.

For the

left wing members, such as Keir Hardie
, accused him of not sufficiently representing the interests of labour within Parliament. Following a defeat in a crucial vote at the 1890 TUC conference, and citing declining health, Broadhurst resigned the post.

In 1892, Broadhurst was appointed to a second Royal Commission, on the aged poor. He lost his seat at Nottingham West at the 1892 general election, and was also defeated at the 1893 Grimsby by-election. However, he returned to Parliament as MP for Leicester at the 1894 Leicester by-election, holding this seat as a Lib–Lab MP until 1906.

Following his retirement, Broadhurst moved to Norfolk, where he became an alderman. He died at the age of 71.

Broadhurst married Eliza Olley, daughter of Edward Olley a journeyman currier[1] at Norwich in 1859.

References

  1. ^ a b Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
  2. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 4)
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Broadhurst, Henry, Henry Broadhurst, M.P.: the story of his life from a stonemason's bench to the Treasury Bench (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1901); chapters on early life on-line on the Vision of Britain through Time web site.
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

Archives

External links

Trade union offices
Preceded by
Robert Knight and W. H. Packwood
 Auditor of the Trades Union Congress
1873–1874
With: Peter Shorrocks (1873)
Philip Casey (1874) 		Succeeded by
Brown and Shipton
Preceded by
Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC

1876–1885 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC

1886–1890 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent
1880–1885
With: William Woodall 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Birmingham Bordesley
1885–1886 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Nottingham West
1886–1892 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Leicester
1894–1906
With: Walter Hazell to 1900
Sir John Rolleston 1900–1906
Ramsay MacDonald 1906 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by
Charles Stuart Wortley
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department

1886 		Succeeded by
Charles Stuart Wortley
Party political offices
Preceded by Secretary of the Labour Representation League
1873–1880 		Succeeded by
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