Arthur Henderson

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Arthur Henderson was the first UK cabinet minister from the Labour Party, the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and served three terms as the Leader of the Labour Party. He was popular among his colleagues, who called him "Uncle Arthur" in acknowledgement of his integrity, devotion to the cause and unperturbability. He was a transition figure whose policies were closer to the Liberal Party for the trades unions rejected his emphasis on arbitration and conciliation and thwarted his goal of unifying the Labour Party and the trades unions. He was born illegitimate in poverty in Glasgow, Scotland. He was a foundry worker and became involved in trade union activities. He was involved in the formation of the British Labour Party with Keir Hardie, from whom he took over as leader in 1908. During the Great War he became a cabinet minister under the premiership of David Lloyd George. His political career is marked by a series of resignations, electoral losses and comebacks. He was involved in the 1922 Genoa Conference on post-war economic reconstruction, and became Home Secretary and, later, Foreign Secretary in the governments of Ramsay MacDonald. He had strong religious convictions as a Methodist, and spent much of his political life working towards the avoidance of conflict. As a result of his work at the Geneva Disarmament Conference, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934. He died of a heart attack the following year. Link to Wikipedia