Tommy Henderson

Thomas Gibson Henderson (13 October 1887 – 14 August 1970) was an Ulster independent Unionist politician. He served in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland from 1925 to 1953 in vigorous opposition to the Unionist governments on all issues other than the partition of Ireland, and is famous for having at one stage spoken for nearly ten hours to outline his disagreements.

Henderson was born in Belfast and brought up in the Shankill Road area. He was educated at Jersey Street National School and Hampden Street National School, and worked as a housepainter and decorator. He was a strong trade unionist and Orangeman.

Henderson was a member of the Irish Unionist Party and when the Unionists decided to establish the Ulster Unionist Labour Association to bolster their support with Protestant workers in 1918, he became a founder member and one of the leading personalities and very popular among the Shankill workers.

In 1920, he offered himself as a potential Unionist candidate for the House of Commons of Northern Ireland at the first election but was met by a patronising response from the Chairman of the selection meeting who looked down at him (Henderson was significantly below average height) in his ill-fitting and paint-spattered clothes and asked "What kind of a man are you?". Henderson left the meeting before the ballot, knowing he could not win and determined to show the Unionists exactly what kind of a man he was.

In 1923, Henderson was elected as an independent Unionist to Belfast City Council. He was to retain the seat until his death. At the 1925 election, he fought the Belfast North constituency and topped the poll with 10,306 first preference votes, the only candidate to have the electoral quota on the first count. From the 1929 election he was elected as member for Belfast Shankill.

...
Wikipedia