Thursday 18 May 2017

1561 Henry Vivian




Constituency : Birkenhead  1906-10, Totnes  1923-4

Henry  took  Birkenhead  from  the  Tories  as  a  Liberal-Labour  candidate..

Henry  was  a  carpenter's  son  from  Devon. He  was  educated  locally  and  became  a  carpenter's  apprentice. He  moved  to  London  and  became  an  active  trade  organiser  for  the  Society  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners. He  was  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Cooperative  movement. He  believed in  co-partnership  in  industry  and  profit-sharing. He  founded  the  Labour  Co  Partnership  Association  to  put  his  ideas  into  practical  action, influenced  by  the  garden  cities  movement. He  published  many  pamphlets  on  his  ideas.

Henry  did  not  support  female  suffrage. He  strongly  resisted  the  idea  that  all  trade  union  MPs  should  move  into  the  Labour  party. He  opposed  the  Unemployed  Workmen  Bill  calling  for  local  relief.

Henry  had  pacifist  leanings  and  in  1906  had  a  resolution  passed  calling  for  arms  limitation  to  be  on  the  agenda  at  an  international  conference  at  The  Hague.

Henry  sat  on  the  Royal  Commission  on  Housing  and  Town  Planning

Henry  held  on  in  January  1910  by  144  votes  but  with  the  left  urging  socialists  to  vote  against  him, he  lost  to  the  Conservatives  in  December.

Henry  went  to  Canada  to  expound  his  ideas  on  urban  planning.

In  1911  Henry  contested  South  Somerset, a  Liberal  seat  since  1885, in  a  by-election  which  seems  to  have  been  mainly  fought  on  the  issue  of  the  National  Insurance  Act. He  lost  by  148  votes.

In  1918  Henry  contested  Edmonton  where  he  came  third.

Henry  was  an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  League  of  Nations  and  was  chair  of  the  local  branch  of  the  League  of  Nations  branch  in  Hornsey.

In  1922  Henry  contested  Northampton  against  Lloyd  George  supporter  Charles  McCurdy  but  came  third  with  less  than  10 %  of  the  vote.

Henry  briefly  returned  to  Parliament  by  recapturing  Totnes  from  the  Tories  in  1923 . He  made  a  long  speech  in  defence  of  Free  Trade  as  soon  as  he  got  there. The  Conservatives  regained  the  seat  in  1924.

He  died  in  1930  aged  62.

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