Arthur Henderson

Arthur Henderson (1863-1935), British politician and trade unionist, Leader of the Labour Party (1908-1910; 1914-1917). Born in Glasgow, son of a domestic servant, the family moved to Newcastle while he was young.

The two central elements in Henderson’s early life were his Christian faith and his commitment to trade unionism. He and his wife, Eleanor, were stalwarts of their local Wesleyan Methodist Mission. Later he was to be a national figure in Methodism, becoming President of the Brotherhood Movement in 1914. Apprenticed at the age of 12 as an iron-moulder, Henderson was a skilled workman and from early on he was active in the Friendly Society of Iron Founders. In 1892 he became his area's district delegate and in 1902 won a ballot to be his union's parliamentary candidate.

Henderson began his political career in the Liberal Party. In 1892 he was elected to Newcastle council and in 1895 the Liberal Party executive selected Henderson to be the second candidate for parliament, but this selection was not endorsed. In late 1895 he became agent to the Liberal MP for Barnard Castle. He moved to Darlington, becoming a county and local councillor and later the town’s mayor.

Henderson joined the Labour Party when his union affiliated to it. In the July 1903 by-election in Barnard Castle, Henderson stood for Labour and won in a three-way fight. Henderson was especially effective as a party apparatchik, whether as Chief Whip or party secretary. As a leader he was competent but had little of the charisma of Keir Hardie or Ramsay MacDonald.

Henderson became the Labour Party's first Cabinet minister, serving under Herbert Asquith and later David Lloyd George during World War I. Though resigning over policy differences with Lloyd George, Henderson remained committed to Britain's war effort. Out of office, he was the major reorganizer of the Labour Party, preparing it to fight most parliamentary seats, providing it with a post-war programme, and adopting a new socialist constitution.

Henderson served under MacDonald in the first two Labour governments. In 1924 he was undistinguished as Home Secretary but between 1929 and 1931 he was more impressive as Foreign Secretary. He loyally carried out Labour's electoral promises on foreign policy, especially of building collective security through the League of Nations. After the defection of MacDonald to the National Government in 1931, Henderson was the big figure who started to rebuild the Labour Party.

His last major effort, however, was as president of the World Disarmament Conference at Geneva between 1932 and 1935. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for this work in 1934.

Henderson's career was hindered by his repeatedly losing his seat in Parliament. He was a big man in all senses, and became the decent, solid, and respectable face of the Labour Party, being described in 1925 as “the most representative Labour leader of our time”.