Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 – 26 September 1915) was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first independent labour Member of Parliament (MPs) in the UK Parliament, seven years before the start of the Labour Party.
He was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. He worked as a coal miner, but his bosses stopped him from working when he made a union. He became a politician, and was elected to (chosen for) parliament in 1892. At first he was a Liberal, but he was interested in making a working class party. He started the Independent Labour Party in 1893, and what became the modern Labour party in 1900. He died in Glasgow following a series of strokes.
Further reading
- Benn, Caroline (1992) Keir Hardie London: Hutchinson ISBN 0-09-175343-0
- Kevin Jefferys (ed), Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair IB Taurus, 1999. ISBN 1860644538
- Kenneth O. Morgan, Keir Hardie, Radical and Socialist Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1975
- Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock OUP, 1987.
- Greg Rosen (ed), Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1902301188
- Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1842750453
Keir Hardie Media
The immediate family tree of James Keir Hardie.
Keir Hardie
Hardie with Andrew Fisher, leader of the Australian Labor Party, in 1907. The two first met as young men during the 1881 Ayrshire coal miners' strike.
Portrait of Hardie painted in 1893 by Scottish artist Henry John Dobson
James Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie, portrait bust
A bust of Hardie outside Cumnock Town Hall
