James Keir Hardie
| James Keir Hardie | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Leader of the Labour Party | |
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In office 17 January 1906 – 22 January 1908 |
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| Chief Whip |
David Shackleton Arthur Henderson George Henry Roberts |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Henderson |
| Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil |
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In office 24 October 1900 – 26 September 1915 Serving with Edgar Rees Jones 1910-1915 |
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| Preceded by | William Pritchard Morgan |
| Succeeded by | Charles Stanton |
| Member of Parliament for West Ham South |
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In office 26 July 1892 – 7 August 1895 |
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| Preceded by | George Banes |
| Succeeded by | George Banes |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
James Keir Hardie 15 August 1856 Newhouse, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Died | 26 September 1915 (aged 59) Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Other political affiliations |
Independent Labour Party |
| Spouse(s) | Lillias Balfour Wilson |
| Children | 4 |
| Religion | Evangelical Union (Scotland) |
James Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915) was a Scottish socialist and the first ever Labour Member of Parliament.
Hardie started work at the age of seven, but was rigorously educated at home by his parents, and later attended night school. Working in the mines, he soon became a full-time trade union organiser. His leadership of the failed Ayrshire miners’ strike of 1881 made such an impact on the mine-owners that they granted important concessions for fear of future industrial action.
Hardie was a dedicated Georgist for a number of years and a member of the Scottish Land Restoration League. It was "through the single tax' on land monopoly that Hardie gradually became a Fabian socialist. He reasoned that "whatever the idea may be, State socialism is necessary as a stage in the development of the ideal."
Having won the parliamentary seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, he helped to form the Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. In 1900 he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, soon renamed the Labour Party, with which the ILP later merged. Hardie was also a lay preacher and temperance campaigner, who supported votes for women, self-rule for India, home-rule for Scotland, and an end to segregation in South Africa. At the outbreak of World War I, he tried to organise a pacifist general strike, but died soon afterwards.
James Keir Hardie was born on 15 August 1856 in a two-roomed cottage on the western edge of Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, near Holytown, a small town close to Motherwell in Scotland. His mother, Mary Keir, was a domestic servant and his step-father, David Hardie, was a ship's carpenter. (He had little or no contact with his biological father, a miner from Lanarkshire named William Aitken.) The growing family soon moved to the shipbuilding borough of Govan near Glasgow, where they made a life in a very difficult financial situation, with his father attempting to maintain continuous employment in the shipyards rather than practising his trade at sea — never an easy proposition given the boom-and-bust cycle of the industry.
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