Henry W. Anderson

Henry Watkins Anderson (December 20, 1870 – January 7, 1954) was an American attorney and leader of the Republican Party in Virginia. He commanded the American Red Cross Commission to Romania during World War I and was the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia in 1921. He is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the law firm Hunton Williams and as the fiancé of the writer Ellen Glasgow.

Anderson was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. He received an LL.B. in 1898 from Washington and Lee University and returned to Richmond. He was admitted to the bar and in 1899 formed a partnership with Beverley Bland Munford. Two years later Anderson persuaded Munford, Edmund Randolph Williams, and Eppa Hunton to form a new firm, which evolved into Hunton & Williams, one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the South.

In 1916, Anderson met and fell in love with the novelist Ellen Glasgow. They began to write a political novel together, for which Anderson supplied copies of his speeches. The character David Blackburn in Glasgow's novel The Builders (1919) strongly resembles Anderson.

After the United States entered World War I, Anderson commanded the American Red Cross Commission to Romania. He remained at his post in Romania until March 1918, when Romania's surrender to Germany forced the Red Cross mission to flee the country. He led a dramatic escape by train across Russia, risking falling into the hands of the equally unfriendly Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. He returned to Richmond but after the Armistice went back to Europe as Red Cross commissioner for the entire Balkans.

While in the Balkans, Anderson became infatuated with Queen Marie of Romania, and the two began a daily exchange of letters and presents. The rumors surrounding the relationship between Anderson and the queen and his blatant exploitation of their friendship caused his engagement with Glasgow to disintegrate. Glasgow eventually reconciled with Anderson and remained close to him until her death in 1945. She used recognizable details of his life in depicting her faithless heroes in several novels, including Barren Ground (1925), The Romantic Comedians (1926), and Vein of Iron (1935).

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