1129 Randal Cremer

Constituency : Haggerston  1885-95, 1900-08

Randal  won  the  new  seat  of  Haggerston  as  a  Liberal-Labour  candidate.

Randal  came  from  a  working  class  background. His  father  was  a  coachman  who  abandoned  the  family  when  Randal  was  still  young. He  received  a  elementary  education  from  the  local  Methodist  school  and  thereafter  was  self-taught.  He  started  work  as  a  builder's  apprentice  and  became  a  skilled  carpenter. He  began  trade  union  activities  after  moving  to  London  in  1852. He  was  secretary  of  the  International  Workingmen's  Association  from  1865  to  1867  when  they  got  too  radical  for  him. Randal  was  a  pacifist  who championed  international  arbitration  as  an  alternative  to  war.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  Reform  League  in  1864  calling  for  manhood  suffrage  and  the  secret  ballot. He  helped  found  the Workmen's  Peace  Association  in  response  to  the  Franco-Prussian  War  and  became  its  general  secretary. He  stood  for  Warwick  in  1865.

Randal  co-founded  the  Inter-Parliamentary  Union  and  the  International  Arbitration  League.  In  1887  he  collected  MPs  signatures  for  an  address  to  President  Cleveland  calling  for  an  Anglo-American  treaty. He  worked  in  the  preparation  of  the  Hague  peace  conferences  in  1899  and  1907. In  1903  he  won  the  Nobel  Peace  Prize.

Randal  also  campaigned  for  technical  education.

Randal  was  narrowly  defeated  in  1895.  The  Liberal  party  spent  a  considerable  sum  on  litigation  to  try  and  overturn  the  result.  He  also  lost  a  libel  case  that  year  and  took  it  so  badly  he  was  briefly  hospitalised  as  a  result.  He  regained  the  seat  in  1900  despite  his  opposition  to  the  Boer  War.

Randal  was  a  fierce  opponent  of  an  independent  labour  party   and  called  Keir  Hardie  " a  catspaw  of  the  Tories".

Randal  accepted  a  knighthood  towards  the  end  of  his  life.

He  died  of  pneumonia  in  1980  aged  79.