George Lansbury

George Lansbury (1859-1940) was a British Labour politician. Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, he became a campaigner for social justice and improved living and working conditions for the lower classes. In 1910, he became MP for Bow and Bromley, but resigned two years later in sympathy with the women's suffrage movement. He eventually returned to Parliament ten years later, having meanwhile founded the Daily Herald[?], a socialist newspaper. In 1922, the year of his re-election, it became the Labour Party's official paper.

In 1931, Lansbury became leader of the party, a position he held until 1935. Lansbury was a pacifist, and publicly disagreed with a TUC resolution (in September 1935) that Italian aggression against Abyssinia must be stopped if necessary by force. At the Labour Party conference in October Ernest Bevin[?] launched a famous attack on Lansbury. Heavily defeated in the vote, Lansbury resigned as leader.

He was an unusually popular politician, an elder statesman with a considerable following.

George Lansbury was the grandfather of both Angela Lansbury and Oliver Postgate.