George Hardie (politician)

For other people named George Hardie, see George Hardie (disambiguation).

George Downie Blyth Crookston Hardie (8 September 1873 – 26 July 1937)[1][2] was a Scottish Labour politician, and the younger brother of the party's founder Keir Hardie.

After leaving school, he became an engineer and an activist in the Independent Labour Party.[3]

He first stood for election to the House of Commons at the 1918 general election, when he unsuccessfully contested the Glasgow Springburn constituency for the Labour Party.[4] He won the Springburn seat with a large majority at the 1922 general election, helped by the absence of a Liberal Party candidate.[4] He was re-elected at the next three consecutive general elections, but when Labour's vote collapsed at the 1931 general election, Hardie was one of those who lost his seat – by a narrow majority of only 34 votes, the left-wing vote having been split by the presence of a Communist Party candidate.[4]

Hardie was re-elected with a large majority at the 1935 general election,[4] and died in office two years later, aged 63. He was succeeded by his wife, Agnes Hardie, who became Glasgow's first female MP and the fifth ever Scottish woman to become an MP.

  1. ^ James Keir Hardie 1856 – 1915 Archived 25 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine at Hunting Dead
  2. ^ "House of Commons constituencies beginning with "S" (part 4)". Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. Archived from the original on 25 June 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "George Hardie". Schoolnet. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.