Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee | |
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1st & 8th President of Indian National Congress | |
In office 1885–1886 | |
Preceded by | post established |
Succeeded by | Dadabhai Naoroji |
In office 1892–1893 | |
Preceded by | Anandacharlu |
Succeeded by | Dadabhai Naoroji |
Personal details | |
Born | Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India) | 29 December 1844
Died | 21 July 1906 Croydon, London, England | (aged 61)
Nationality | British Indian |
Political party | Indian National Congress |
Spouse | Hemangini Motilal (m. 1859) |
Alma mater | Middle Temple |
Occupation | Indian independence activist Lawyer |
Known for | Co-founder and First president of Indian National Congress |
Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee (or Umesh Chandra Banerjee (29 December 1844 – 21 July 1906) was an Indian Independence activist, and barrister who practiced in England. He was a secretary of the London Indian society founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1865. He was a co-founder and the first president of Indian National Congress in 1885 at Bombay, served again as president in 1892 at Allahabad.[1] Bonnerjee financed the British Committee of Congress and its journals in London. Along with Naoroji, Eardley Norton and William Digby he started the Congress Political Agency, a branch of Congress in London. He unsuccessfully contested the 1892 United Kingdom general election as a Liberal party candidate for the Barrow and Furness seat. In 1893, Naoroji, Bonnerjee and Badruddin Tyabji founded the Indian Parliamentary Committee in England.