Lansbury, George, 1859-1940, Labour politician

Rt Hon George Lansbury, 1859-1940, left school at the age of fourteen and worked as a clerk, a wholesale grocer and in a coffee bar before starting his own business as a contractor for the Great Eastern Railway. In 1884 he emigrated to Australia with his wife and children, but did not find the experience satisfactory, returning home in 1885 to enter his father-in-law's timber merchant business. Lansbury was involved in politics from an early age, first as an active Radical and then as a Socialist. He became a borough councillor in Poplar in 1903 and Labour MP of Bow and Bromley in 1910. In 1912, he resigned to fight the seat as an Independent and a supporter of suffrage for women. He was re-elected in 1922 and held the position of leader of the Labour Party from 1931 to 1935. Lansbury was greatly interested in the causes and prevention of poverty and unemployment. He was a member of the Central Unemployed Body for London and also a member of the Royal Commission on Poor Law, where he signed the minority report. In 1929 he became the first Commissioner of Works and also established the first Poor Law Labour Colony and the first Labour Colony for the Unemployed (apart from the Poor Law and under public control) at Hollesley Bay. He was also a founder of the Daily Herald and its editor from 1919 to 1923.