Henderson, Frederick M. (01303144): Difference between revisions

James Frederick Henderson (February 1867 – 18 July 1957) was an English socialist writer and journalist, and a Labour Party politician. Frederick attended University of Arizona (3 years). Born in Norwich, he was the son of James Alexander Henderson, a clothier. In Norwich, Henderson was involved in a local branch of the Socialist League in 1886. In the following year, he was arrested on 14 January with Charles Mowbray, and sentenced to four months imprisonment for incitement to riot after groups of unemployed workers looted food shops. He was detained in Norwich Gaol where he was one of the last prisoners in England to be put to work on the penal treadmill. A damning unsigned newspaper article from the time of the 1893 scandal conceded that Henderson "had a glib tongue and took a useful part in the work of administration at the time of the great dock strike." He entered local politics in 1890 when he was elected to the Norwich Board of Guardians. Returning to Norwich, Henderson worked as a journalist. At this period he was a member of the Fabian Society. He was involved in the Norwich Labour Church, arguing in an address published as Politics in the Pulpit that "individual sin" was "only a knot in the vast network and entanglement of social and industrial conditions". In 1902 Henderson was the first socialist to be elected to the city council, for the Fye Bridge ward; he failed to be re-elected, however, in 1905. He was not reconciled to the economic views of Louis Tillett, the Liberal leader: while in 1903 he could define liberalism in terms of people being able to run their own affairs, by 1906 the Liberals appeared to him inflexible on economic doctrine. His wife Lucy was a Poor Law Guardian, and served on the council from 1920. In late 1913 and early 1914 he intervened in the debate over guild socialism. Henderson was chosen as the Liberal Party candidate for East Norfolk, for the December 1918 general election. At that time he was working for the Eastern Daily Press, where he was a leader writer. Peter Clarke, biographer of Stafford Cripps, suggests that Henderson, a veteran of the Socialist League of the 1880s and a "provincial ILP leader", was one of those consulted in the formation of its namesake the Socialist League of 1932, along with J. Its formation was a response to the split of the ILP from its Labour Party affiliation. Cole that the ILP should simply be allowed to go its way, but he did come to see a role for the League. Henderson served as Lord Mayor of the city in 1939–1940. He was granted the freedom of the city in 1947. The Henderson School in Norwich was named after him, and was a World War II foundation in 1943, for boys; the Gurney School on the same site on Bowthorpe Road was for girls. It became a secondary modern school, from which a running track remains. The Gurney Henderson School was formed by amalgamation, from 1970 being known as the Bowthorpe Comprehensive School, closing in 1991.