BROADHURST, Rt Hon Henry, 1840-1911, MP

Correspondence, mainly to the Rt Hon Henry Broadhurst, MP, 1873-1910, from correspondents including the Rt Hon William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister; the Rt Hon Joseph Chamberlain, MP; the Rt Hon Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon-Harcourt, MP; John Duke, 1st Baron Coleridge; Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke; Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford; Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys; George H Croxden Powell; Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery; and Charles Robert Wynn-Carrington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire. There is a name index in the catalogue.

Born in 1840; educated at Littlemore Village School, Oxfordshire; worked in a blacksmith's shop, then as a stonemason until 1872; Secretary, Labour Representative League, 1875; Secretary, Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress, 1875-1890; MP for Stoke-on-Trent, 1880-1885, Bordesley, 1885-1886, Nottingham, 1886-1892, and Leicester, 1894-1906; Under-Secretary of State, Home Department, 1886; served on Royal Commissions, including Reformatory and Industrial Schools, Housing of the Working Classes, and the Condition of the Aged Poor; offered and refused Inspectorship of Factories and Workshops, 1882, and the Inspectorship of Canal Boats, 1884; JP and Alderman, County of Norfolk; Poor Law Guardian, Erpingham Union; member of Cromer Urban District Council; Chairman, Lifeboat Committee; founder of Tooting Common Club; founder of the Golf Links, Cromer and Sheringham, Norfolk; died 1911.
Publications: Henry Broadhurst, M.P: the story of his life from a stonemason's bench to the Treasury bench told by himself (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1901); Handy book on household enfranchisement (1885).

The correspondence is arranged chronologically.

This collection has been microfilmed and the originals withdrawn from public use for preservation purposes. The microfilm must be used. Apply to Archivist for originals.

Printed handlist available.

Microfilm made available by Follet Preservation Microfilming Project, 1998. Films are held on open access in the Library (Archives MF 65-66).

Sources: Who's Who 1897-1996 (A & C Black, 1996); British Library On-Line Public Access Catalogue 97; Historical Manuscripts Commission National Register of Archives. Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

The Bishopsgate Institute, London, holds letters to George Howell, MP, 1873-1886; the British Library, London, has correspondence with William Ewart Gladstone, 1878-1896 (Ref: Add MSS 44456-524); the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, contains correspondence with John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, 1882-1883 (Ref: MSS Eng a 2013-14, b 2047-49, c 3933-4514, d 2439-92, e 2790-97), the TUC Library at the University of North London holds two manuscript volumes relating to Broadhurst's life and work, 1872-1905 (Ref GB 1924 Broadhurst).

Apply to Archivist for copyright details. Microfilm copies only.

Previously listed as Coll L/SR 151.

The BLPES holds a typescript of Broadhurst's autobiography (Ref: Coll Misc 0269); there is correspondence with him in the papers of Alfred George Gardiner (Ref: Gardiner/1/4), the Frederic Harrison papers (Ref: Harrison/1/22), and the papers of the Independent Labour Party (Ref: ILP/4/1894).