Henderson, Arthur
Henderson, Arthur (1863–1935). Labour politician. Brought up on Tyneside and apprenticed as an ironfounder, Henderson, then a fervent Gladstonian Liberal, moved slowly to the view that the political future of the manual working classes lay in separation from Liberalism. Elected as MP for Barnard Castle under the auspices of the Labour Representation Committee in 1903, Henderson succeeded to the secretaryship of its successor, the Labour Party, in 1911. Unlike Ramsay MacDonald, Henderson approved of the British war effort in 1914; he succeeded MacDonald as leader of the parliamentary Labour party, and in 1915 agreed to serve in Asquith's government, becoming a member of Lloyd George's war cabinet the following year. In 1917 he resigned from the government over his support for a negotiated peace, and while playing a major part in the constitutional restructuring of the Labour Party in 1918 he devoted himself increasingly to international reconciliation and support for the League of Nations; he was foreign secretary in the second Labour government.
Geoffrey Alderman
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Henderson, Arthur
