Henry
Broadhurst,
the son of a stonemason, was born at Littlemore on 13th April, 1840.
After a brief schooling he started work at the age of twelve. A brief
spell as a gardener was followed by an apprenticeship as a stonemason
in Oxford. A staunch Methodist,
Broadhurst's work mainly involved repairing and enlarging churches
and university colleges.
In the late 1850s Broadhurst moved to Norwich
where he found work as a stonemason. In 1865 Broadhurst and his new
wife, Eliza Olley, moved to London where
he was involved in rebuilding the House of
Commons.
While in London Broadhurst became involved
the struggle for universal suffrage. He joined the Reform
League and took part in several demonstrations and meetings in the
build up to the passing of the 1867 Reform Act.
In 1872 Henry Broadhurst took part in the campaign to reduce the working
week and an increase in the hourly wage paid in the building industry.
Broadhurst soon emerged as one of the leaders of the stonemasons and
took part in the negotiations with the employers. Broadhurst now gave
up his work as a stonemason to become a full-time union official.
Later that year Broadhurst represented the Stonemasons Union at the
annual Trade Union Congress (TUC) and was
elected to its Parliamentary Committee.
In 1783 Broadhurst was elected secretary of the Labour
Representation League,
an organisation that was attempting to enable working men to be elected
to the House of Commons. The LBR sponsored
thirteen trade union candidates in the 1874 General
Election, and two of them, Alexander
MacDonald and Thomas Burt, were elected
as Lib-Labs MPs.
Broadhurst played an important role in the campaign to have the Masters
and Servants Act repealed and in 1875 the Conservative
government, led by Benjamin Disraeli,
agreed to the TUC's proposals. As a result of the Conspiracy
and Protection of Property Act was passed by Parliament in 1875,
which secured the right to participate in peaceful picketing.
The following year Henry
Broadhurst supported William Gladstone
and his campaign against Bulgarian Atrocities. Broadhurst obtained
the signatures of over 15,000 people, including many trade union leaders,
to a petition which John Bright presented
to Parliament.
In the 1880 General Election Broadhurst was
elected as Liberal MP for Stoke-upon-Trent.
Broadhurst joined Alexander MacDonald
and Thomas Burt as Lib-Lab
supporters of Gladstone's government. In the House
of Commons Broadhurst led the campaign for a government commission
to investigate working-class housing. In the 1885
General Election Broadhurst was elected for the Bordesley seat
in Birmingham.
After the election, William Gladstone
offered Broadhurst the post of Under-Secretary at the Home Office.
When Broadhurst accepted the post he became the first working man
to become a government minister. Broadhurst's loyal support of the
Liberal government upset some trade union
leaders. When Broadhurst argued against the eight-hour day, James
Keir Hardie remarked that the minister was more Liberal than Labour.
At the 1889 Trade Union Congress Hardie argued
that Henry Broadhurst was guilty of holding shares in a company that
treated its workers badly. The following year, the TUC supported Hardie
against Broadhurst by passing a resolution in favour of the eight-hour
day. Broadhurst was especially hurt when he discovered that the Stonemasons
Union had voted against him. In the 1892 General
Election Broadhurst was defeated at West
Nottingham. His objection to the eight-hour day had lost him the
support of local workers and this enabled a local
colliery owner to defeat him.
Attempts to be elected in Grimsey in 1893 ended
in failure but Broadhurst eventually won at Leicester
in 1894. He held the seat until his retirement before the 1906
General Election. Henry
Broadhurst died at Cromer, Norfolk, on 11th October, 1911.
(1)
Beatrice Webb met Henry Broadhurst in Dundee
in September, 1889.
With Broadhurst I lunched and afterwards smoked a cigarette. His suspicions
of my intentions were completely dissipated when he heard I was an
anti-suffrage woman. He immediately thought me sensible and sound.
"When I hear a woman's name talked of I am immediately prejudiced
against her, but I can see you are as different as pitch from diamonds."
So he chatted on about socialism, trade unionism and his own complaints
and showed every sign of being confidential. A commonplace person,
hard-working no doubt, but a middle-class philistine to the backbone,
appealing to the practical shrewdness
and the high-flown but mediocre sentiments of the comfortably off
working man. His view of women is typical of all his other views:
he lives in platitudes and commonplaces.
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