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

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iron moulder and

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. He was the first Labour

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minister, won the

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in 1934 and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of the Labour Party in three different decades. He was popular among his colleagues, who called him "Uncle Arthur" in acknowledgement of his integrity, his devotion to the cause and his imperturbability. He was a transitional figure whose policies were, at first, close to those of the

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. The

trades unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

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,

Anderston Anderston ( sco, Anderstoun, gd, Baile Aindrea) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is on the north bank of the River Clyde and forms the south western edge of the city centre. Established as a village of handloom weavers in the early 18th cent ...

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, in 1863, the son of Agnes, a domestic servant, and David Henderson, a textile worker who died when Arthur was ten years old. After his father's death, the Hendersons moved to

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in the

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, where Agnes later married Robert Heath. 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

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

for a year and then returned to work as an iron moulder (a type of

foundryman A foundry is a factory that produces metal casting (metalworking), castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. T ...

) in Newcastle upon Tyne. Henderson became a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

in 1879 (having previously been a Congregationalist) and became a

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. 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 The Friendly Society of Iron Founders of England, Ireland and Wales (FSIF) was an early trade union representing foundry workers in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1809 in Bolton as the Friendly Iron Moulders' Society. Unlike ...

. 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

In 1900 Henderson was one of the 129 trade union and socialist delegates who passed Keir Hardie's motion to create the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). In 1903, Henderson was elected Treasurer of the LRC and was also elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

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at a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. From 1903 to 1904, Henderson also served as mayor of Darlington, County Durham. In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party and won 29 seats at the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. 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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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. In 1915, following Prime Minister

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...

's decision to create a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

, Henderson became the first member of the Labour Party to become a member of the Cabinet, as

President of the Board of Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

. In 1916,

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

forced Asquith to resign and replaced him as Prime Minister. Henderson became a member of the small

War Cabinet A war cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war to efficiently and effectively conduct that war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers, although it is quite common for a war cabinet to have senio ...

with the post of

Minister without Portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

on 9 December 1916. The other Labour representatives who joined Henderson in Lloyd George's coalition government were

John Hodge John Hodge may refer to: *John R. Hodge (1893–1963), United States Army officer *John E. Hodge (1914–1996), American chemist *John Hodge (politician) (1855–1937), British politician *John Hodge (engineer) (1929–2021), British-born aerospace ...

, who became

Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

, and George Barnes, who became Minister of Pensions. Henderson resigned on 11 August 1917 after his proposal for an international conference on the war was rejected by the rest of the Cabinet. The Labour National Executive Committee had rejected the

Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...

's request for a meeting of European socialist parties on the war in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, but after Henderson convinced it to give provisional support after visiting the

Russian Republic The Russian Republic,. referred to as the Russian Democratic Federal Republic. in the Decree on the system of government of Russia (1918), 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state (polity), state which controlled, ''de jure'', the territ ...

as an envoy and recognizing that the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

would collapse if the war continued. 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.

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. Henderson returned to Parliament in 1919 after winning a by-election in

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

. He then became Labour's

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

held Henderson in very low regard. In a letter to the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs,

Georgy Chicherin Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (24 November 1872 – 7 July 1936), also spelled Tchitcherin, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician who served as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from ...

, written on 10 February 1922 and referring to the

Genoa Conference The Genoa Economic and Financial Conference was a formal conclave of 34 nations held in Genoa, Italy, from 10 April to 19 May 1922 that was planned by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to resolve the major economic and political issues faci ...

, Lenin wrote: "Henderson is as stupid as Kerensky, and for this reason he is helping us." Henderson lost his seat again, at the general election of 1922. He returned to Parliament via another by-election, this time representing

Newcastle East Newcastle East is an inner city suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located immediately east of Newcastle's central business district at the mouth of the Hunter River. The Awabakal and Worimi peoples are acknowledged by City of Newc ...

, but again, he was unseated at the general election of 1923. He returned to Parliament just two months later after winning another by-election in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. In 1924, Henderson was appointed as

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

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 another minority government and MacDonald appointed Henderson as

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

, a position Henderson used to try to reduce the tensions that had been building up in Europe since the end of the

. Diplomatic relations were re-established with the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and Henderson guaranteed Britain's full support to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

The MacDonald "betrayal"

The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

plunged the government into a terminal crisis. The Cabinet agreed that it was essential to maintain the

Gold Standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

and that the Budget needed to be balanced, but were divided over reducing

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

by 10%. At first, Henderson gave strong support to Prime Minister MacDonald throughout the financial and political crisis of August. The financial crisis across Europe was worsening and Britain's gold reserves were at high risk. New York banks provided an emergency loan; but additional money was needed and to get it, the budget had to be balanced. MacDonald and Chancellor of the Exchequer

Philip Snowden Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utop ...

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 George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

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 The National Labour Organisation, also known as the National Labour Committee or simply as National Labour, was a British political group formed after the 1931 creation of the National Government to co-ordinate the efforts of the supporters of ...

") who stood with Macdonald, plus four

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

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.

Later career

Henderson returned to Parliament after winning a by-election at

Clay Cross Clay Cross is a town and a civil parish in the North East Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. It is a former industrial and mining town, about south of Chesterfield. It is directly on the A61. Surrounding settlements include North W ...

, achieving the unique feat of being elected a total of five times at

by-elections A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He worked with the World League of Peace and chaired the

Geneva Disarmament Conference The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in Geneva, Switzerland, between February 1932 and November 1934 ...

, and in 1934 he was awarded the

. (On 3 April 2013 his Nobel medal was stolen from the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Newcastle.) Arthur Henderson, Golders Green Crematorium

Arthur Henderson, Golders Green Crematorium

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

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

. All three of Henderson's sons saw military service during the Great War, the eldest, David, being killed in action in 1916 whilst serving as a Captain with the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own). His surviving sons also became Labour politicians: second son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

was granted the title of Baron Henderson in 1945, while his third son,

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...

, was created Baron Rowley in 1966. The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

holds the papers of Arthur Henderson in their collection, spanning from 1915 to 1935.

Works

* The League of Nations and labour (1918)

Citations

Sources

* * * Hamilton, Mary Agnes. ''Arthur Henderson: A Biography'' (1938), a detailed and favourable account by a former colleague * Howard, Christopher. "MacDonald, Henderson, and the Outbreak of War, 1914." ''Historical Journal'' 20.4 (1977): 871–891
online
* McKibbin, Ross. "Arthur Henderson as Labour Leader," ''International Review of Social History'' (1978) pp. 79–101 * Riddell, Neil. "Arthur Henderson, 1931–1932," in ''Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair'', ed. Kevin Jefferys (1999) * Thorpe, Andrew. "Arthur Henderson and the British Political Crisis of 1931," ''Historical Journal'' (1988) pp. 117–13
in JSTOR
* UK National Archives

* Winkler, Henry H. "Arthur Henderson," in ''The Diplomats, 1919–1939'', ed. Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert (1953) * Winter, J M. "Arthur Henderson, the Russian Revolution and the Reconstruction of the Labour Party," ''Historical Journal'' (1972) pp. 753–73
in JSTOR
* Wrigley, Chris. ''Arthur Henderson'' (1990), a scholarly biography

External links

* * including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1934 ''Essential Elements of a Universal and Enduring Peace''
J. Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson, ''Manifesto to the British People''
(1 August 1914)
Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Arthur Henderson MP on the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, 1932
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Arthur British Secretaries of State for Education British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs Secretaries of State for the Home Department Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Leaders of the Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies United Kingdom Paymasters General UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 Nobel Peace Prize laureates British Nobel laureates British Methodists Converts to Methodism Politicians from Glasgow Moldmakers 1863 births 1935 deaths Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Politics of Burnley Scottish Nobel laureates People from Anderston Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) People from Widnes