right|thumb|Arthur Henderson

'''Arthur Henderson''' (født 13. september 1863, død 20. oktober 1935) var en britisk sosialdemokratisk politiker og fagforeningsmann. Han fikk Nobels fredspris i 1934 for sitt arbeid for nedrustning.

==Tidlig liv==

Arthur Henderson ble født i Glasgow i 1863 som sønn av en tekstilarbeider, som døde da sønnen var kun ti år gammel. Etter farens død flyttet Hendersons familie til Newcastle upon Tyne i den nordøstlige delen av England.

Henderson arbeidet ved en lokomotivfabrikk fra 12-årsalderen. I 1879 konverterte han til metodismen, og var senere virksom som legpredikant. Han mistet jobben på fabrikken i 1884, og konsentrerte seg om predikantvirksomheten og tilegnelsen av kunnskaper.

==Fagforeningsleder==

I 1892 begynte Henderson å engasjere seg i fagforeningsvirksomhet, og ble valgt til betalt organisator for Iron Founders Union. Han ble også medlem av North East Conciliation Board.

Henderson mente at streiker gjorde mer skade enn gagn, og forsøkte å unngå dem når det var mulig. Av denne grunnen var han en motstander av én landsomfattende organisasjon for alle fagforeninger, fordi han var overbevist om at det ville føre til flere streiker.

==Tidlig virke i det britiske arbeiderpartiet==

I det britiske underhuset for valgkretsen Barnard Castle.

I 1906 endret LRC sitt navn til ''Labour Party'' og vant 29 seter i parlamentsvalget samme år.

Da Hardie gikk av som Labours leder i 1908, ble Henderson valgt som hans etterfølger og var leder i to år før han trakk seg i 1910.

==Kabinettsmedlem==

Da første verdenskrig brøt ut i 1914 valgte Labours leder Ramsay MacDonald å trekke seg i protest. Henderson ble igjen leder for partiet, og i 1915 ble han som den første sosialdemokratiske politiker medlem av regjeringen, som utdannelsesminister.

I 1916 presset David Lloyd George den sittende statsministeren Herbert Henry Asquith til å gå av, og ble ny statsminister. Henderson ble medlem av det reduserte krigskabinettet som minister uten portefølje.

Henderson trakk seg fra regjeringen i august 1917, etter at hans forslag om en internasjonal konferanse for å få en slutt på krigen var blitt nedstemt av resten av kabinettet. Kort etter trakk han seg også som leder for Labour.

{{Infobox Politician
| name= Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson 
| image=arthurhenderson.jpg
| imagesize=200px
| birth_date = 13 September 1863 
| birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
| death_place = London, England
| death_date = 
| office = Leader of the Opposition
| term_start =  1 September 1931  
| term_end =  25 October 1932 
| predecessor = Stanley Baldwin
| successor = George Lansbury
| office2 = Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
| term_start2 = 7 June 1929 
| term_end2 = 24 August 1931
| predecessor2 = Austen Chamberlain
| successor2 = 1st Marquess of Reading 
| party = Labour Party 
| office3 = Home Secretary
| term_start3 = 23 January 
| term_end3 = 4 November 1924
| predecessor3 = William Bridgeman 
| successor3 = Sir William Joynson-Hicks
| party = Labour Party 
}}

'''Arthur Henderson''' (Laureate. He served three short terms as the leader of the Labour Party from 1908-10, 1914-17 and 1931-32. 

== Early life ==
Arthur Henderson was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1863, the son of a textile worker who died when Arthur was only 10 years old. After his father's death, the Hendersons moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England.

Henderson worked in a locomotive factory from the age of 12. After finishing his apprenticeship at seventeen, Arthur Henderson moved to Congregationalist) in 1879. This had a major impact on Henderson and he became a Lay preacher. In 1884, Henderson lost his job, and concentrated on his education, and preaching commitments.

== Union leader ==
However by 1892, Henderson had entered the complex world of Trade Union politics, when he was elected as a paid organiser for the Iron Founders Union, and was also a representative on the North East Conciliation Board.

Henderson believed that strikes caused more harm than they were worth, and tried to avoid them whenever he could. For this reason he opposed the formation of the General Federation of Trade Unions, as he was convinced it would lead to more strikes.

== The Labour Party ==
In 1900, Henderson was one of the 129 trade union and socialist delegates, who passed Keir Hardie's motion to create the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), and in 1903, Henderson was elected treasurer of the LRC, and was also elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnard Castle following a by-election.

In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party and won 29 seats in the general election of that year (which was a Liberal Party).

In 1908, when Hardie resigned as Leader of the Labour Party, Henderson was elected to replace him, and was leader for two fairly quiet (from Labour's perspective) years, before resigning in 1910.

== Cabinet Minister ==
In 1914, the First World War broke out, and the then-Labour leader, Asquith's decision to create a coalition government, became the first member of the Labour Party to become a member of the Cabinet, as President of the Board of Education.

In 1916, David Lloyd George forced Asquith to resign and became Prime Minister. Henderson became a member of the small War Cabinet with the job of Minister without Portfolio. Other labour and union representatives to join Henderson in Lloyd george's coalition government were; John Hodge and George Barnes. John Hodge became Minister of Labour whilst Barnes became Minister of Pensions<ref>Hopkins, eric, ''A Social History of the English Working Classes, 1815-1945, Hodder and Stoughton 1979. p219''</ref>. Henderson resigned in August 1917 when his idea for an international conference on the war was voted down by the rest of the cabinet; shortly afterwards he resigned as Labour leader.

== The coupon election and the 1920s ==
Henderson lost his seat in the "coupon election" of December 14, 1918, an election announced within twenty four hours of the end of hostilities in World War I that resulted in a landslide victory for a coalition formed by presiding Prime Minister Lloyd George[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/electionspast/story/0,15867,1450370,00.html]
Henderson returned to Parliament in 1919 after winning a by-election in Widnes. After his election, he became Labour's chief whip, only to lose his seat in the 1922 general election.

Again, he returned to Parliament via a by-election, this time representing Newcastle East, however he lost this seat in the 1923 general election, but returned to Parliament two months later after winning a by-election in Burnley. He was appointed Home Secretary in the first ever Labour government (led by MacDonald). This government was defeated in 1924, and lost the following election partially because of the Zinoviev letter printed in the right-wing broadsheet the ''Daily Mail''.

Unusually, Henderson was re-elected in 1924, and he refused to challenge MacDonald for the party leadership, despite being apparently begged by other MPs to do just that. Worried about factionalism in the Labour Party, he published a pamphlet called ''Labour and the Nation'', in which he attempted to clarify the Labour Party's goals.