Scottish socialist and founder of the British Labour Party (1856–1915)
The Right Honourable
Keir Hardie
Hardie in 1905 by G. C. Beresford
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 17 January 1906 – 22 January 1908
Chief Whip
David Shackleton Arthur Henderson George Henry Roberts
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
Arthur Henderson
Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil
In office 24 October 1900 – 26 September 1915
Serving with Edgar Rees Jones (1910–1915)
Preceded by
William Pritchard Morgan
Succeeded by
Charles Stanton
Member of Parliament for West Ham South
In office 26 July 1892 – 7 August 1895
Preceded by
George Banes
Succeeded by
George Banes
Personal details
Born
James Keir Hardie
15 August 1856 Newhouse, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died
26 September 1915(1915-09-26) (aged 59) Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Political party
Labour
Other political affiliations
Scottish Labour Independent Labour
Spouse
Lillias Balfour Wilson
(m. 1880)
Children
4
James Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908.
Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. He started working at the age of seven, and from the age of 10 worked in the Lanarkshire coal mines. With a background in preaching, he became known as a talented public speaker and was chosen as a spokesman for his fellow miners. In 1879, Hardie was elected leader of a miners' union in Hamilton and organised a National Conference of Miners in Dunfermline. He subsequently led miners' strikes in Lanarkshire (1880) and Ayrshire (1881). He turned to journalism to make ends meet, and from 1886 was a full-time union organiser as secretary of the Ayrshire Miners' Union.
Hardie initially supported William Gladstone's Liberal Party, but later concluded that the working class needed its own party. He first stood for parliament in 1888 as an independent, and later that year helped form the Scottish Labour Party. Hardie won the English seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, and helped to form the Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. He lost his seat in 1895, but was re-elected to Parliament in 1900 for Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. In the same year he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, which was later renamed the Labour Party.
After the 1906 election, Hardie was chosen as the Labour Party's first parliamentary leader. He resigned in 1908 in favour of Arthur Henderson, and spent his remaining years campaigning for causes such as women's suffrage, self-rule for India, and opposition to World War I. He died in 1915 while attempting to organise a pacifist general strike. Hardie is seen as a key figure in the history of the Labour Party and has been the subject of multiple biographies. Kenneth O. Morgan has called him "Labour's greatest pioneer and its greatest hero".
James KeirHardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served...
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was expelled from the Labour Party as a result. MacDonald, along with KeirHardie and Arthur Henderson, was one of the three principal founders of the...
mining community in the face of hardship, especially the politics of KeirHardie, the founder of the Labour Party in the UK. The Holytown Miners' Association...
by-election on 25 November 1915 caused by the death of Labour Party founder, KeirHardie. After the two-member Merthyr Tydfil seat was divided into two single...
Among his many published books was a biography of his father-in-law, KeirHardie. Hughes was born in Tonypandy, Wales, the son of the Reverend J. R. Hughes...
left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist KeirHardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch on account of...
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Butler & Butler 1994, PP144-5 Kevin Jefferys, Leading Labour: From KeirHardie to Tony Blair, p.4 'British Political Facts 1900–1994', Butler & Butler...
generosity was tarnished in 1899 by the figurehead of the Labour Movement, KeirHardie, to whom the employees had turned for help regarding their situation...
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