The Right Honourable
The Lord Rowley
QC PC
Secretary of State for Air
In office
7 October 1947 – 26 October 1951
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byPhilip Noel-Baker
Succeeded byWilliam Sidney
Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations
In office
14 August 1947 – 7 October 1947
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byOffice Abolished
Under-Secretary of State for India and Burma
In office
4 August 1945 – 14 August 1947
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byRoger Lumley
Succeeded byOffice Abolished
Financial Secretary to the War Office
In office
7 February 1943 – 23 May 1945
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byDuncan Sandys
Succeeded byMaurice Petherick
Under-Secretary of State for War
In office
4 March 1942 – 7 February 1943
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byEdward Grigg
Succeeded byHenry Page Croft
Member of Parliament
for Rowley Regis and Tipton
Kingswinford (1935–1950)
In office
14 November 1935 – 10 March 1966
Preceded byAlan Todd
Succeeded byPeter Archer
Member of Parliament
for Cardiff South
In office
30 May 1929 – 7 October 1931
Preceded byArthur Evans
Succeeded byArthur Evans
In office
6 December 1923 – 9 October 1924
Preceded bySir James Cory
Succeeded byArthur Evans
Personal details
Born27 August 1893 (1893-08-27)
Died28 August 1968 (1968-08-29) (aged 75)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Alma materTrinity Hall, Cambridge

Arthur Henderson, Baron Rowley, QC, PC (27 August 1893 – 28 August 1968) was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life and education

Arthur Henderson was the son of Arthur Henderson, who was Leader of the Labour Party between 1908 and 1910, 1914–17 and 1931–2. He was educated at the Central School, Darlington, Queen's College, Taunton, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated with honours degrees in Economics (MA) and Law (LLB). While at Cambridge he was chair of the university's Labour Club. In 1921 he was called to the bar, and in the same year was appointed Secretary of the University Labour Federation. At the 1922 general election he contested Portsmouth North in the Labour interest. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1939.[1]

Parliament

Henderson was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1923 general election, as Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Wales seat of Cardiff South. He lost his seat at the 1924 general election to the Conservative Arthur Evans, but won it back at the 1929 general election.

When Labour split at the 1931 election over Ramsay MacDonald's formation of a National Government, Henderson was one of the many Labour MPs to lose their seats. Evans was re-elected, and held the seat until the 1945 election, when he lost to future Prime Minister James Callaghan.

Henderson returned to Parliament at the 1935 general election, for the English constituency of Kingswinford in Staffordshire. He held that seat until its abolition for the 1950 general election, when he was elected for the new seat of Rowley Regis and Tipton, on the other side of Dudley. He was re-elected in Rowley Regis until his retirement from the Commons at the 1966 election. He was created a life peer on 27 May 1966 as Baron Rowley, of Rowley Regis in the County of Staffordshire.[2] He died two years later, the day after his 75th birthday.

In government

In the World War II coalition government, he served as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1942 to 1943, and then as Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1943 until the coalition was dissolved in 1945 at the end of the war.

The 1945 general election saw Labour returned to government with a huge majority, and Henderson was appointed as junior minister at the India Office, with the title of Under-Secretary of State for India and Burma. When India gained its independence in 1947, the India Office was abolished, and Henderson was appointed as a Privy Counsellor and promoted to Secretary of State for Air, the ministry with responsibility for the Royal Air Force. He retained that post until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.

Later life and death

Plaque dedicated to Henderson, his parents and siblings at Golders Green Crematorium

Henderson appeared as a contestant on the American television game show What's My Line? on 6 October 1957.[3] He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium upon his death in 1968.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Rowley". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 2018 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "No. 44000". The London Gazette. 31 May 1966. p. 6355.
  3. ↑ What's My Line? - Danny Thomas; Ernie Kovacs [panel] (Oct 6, 1957). YouTube. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021.

References

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