George Lansbury
British politician and reformer (1859–1940) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1929–31, he spent his political life campaigning against established authority and vested interests, his main causes being the promotion of social justice, women's rights, and world disarmament.
George Lansbury | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Howard Coster, 1935 | |
| In office 25 October 1932[1] – 8 October 1935 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Deputy | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Arthur Henderson |
| Succeeded by | Clement Attlee |
| First Commissioner of Works | |
| In office 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart |
| Chairman of the Labour Party | |
| In office 7 October 1927 – 5 October 1928 | |
| Leader | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Frederick Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Herbert Morrison |
| Member of Parliament for Bow and Bromley | |
| In office 15 November 1922 – 7 May 1940 | |
| Preceded by | Reginald Blair |
| Succeeded by | Charles Key |
| In office 3 December 1910 – 26 November 1912 | |
| Preceded by | Alfred Du Cros |
| Succeeded by | Reginald Blair |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 February 1859 Halesworth, Suffolk, England |
| Died | 7 May 1940(1940-05-07) (aged 81) North London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse |
Bessie Brine
(m. 1880; died 1933) |
| Children | 12, including Edgar, Dorothy and Daisy |
| Relatives |
|
Originally a radical Liberal, Lansbury became a socialist in the early 1890s, and thereafter served his local community in the East End of London in numerous elective offices. His activities were underpinned by his Christian beliefs which, except for a short period of doubt, sustained him through his life. Elected to the UK Parliament in 1910, he resigned his seat in 1912 to campaign for women's suffrage, and was briefly imprisoned after publicly supporting militant action.
In 1912, Lansbury helped to establish the Daily Herald newspaper, and became its editor. Throughout the First World War, the paper maintained a strongly pacifist stance, and supported the October 1917 Russian Revolution. These positions contributed to Lansbury's failure to be elected to Parliament in 1918. He devoted himself to local politics in his home borough of Poplar, and went to prison with 30 fellow-councillors for his part in the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921.
After his return to Parliament in 1922, Lansbury was denied office in the brief Labour government of 1924, although he served as First Commissioner of Works in the Labour government of 1929–31. After the political and economic crisis of August 1931, Lansbury did not follow his leader, Ramsay MacDonald, into the National Government, but remained with the Labour Party. As the most senior of the small contingent of Labour MPs that survived the 1931 UK general election, Lansbury became the Leader of the Labour Party. His pacifism and his opposition to rearmament in the face of rising European fascism put him at odds with his party, and when his position was rejected at the 1935 Labour Party conference, he resigned the leadership. He spent his final years travelling through the United States and Europe in the cause of peace and disarmament.