Overstrand Village and Parish Council

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Henry Broadhurst 1840-1911

Overstrand's first Parish Council Chairman 1894-1899

Henry Broadhurst 1840-1911. Trade Unionist & MP
JP and Alderman County of Norfolk, Founder of golf links Cromer & Sheringham, member of Cromer Urban District Council, Chairman Lifeboat Committee.

Henry Broadhurst, the son of a stonemason, was quite a remarkable man, born at Littlemore in Oxfordshire in 1840. Receiving very little education he started work at the age of twelve. A brief spell as a gardener was followed by an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Oxford. A staunch Methodist, Broadhurst’s work mainly involved repairing and enlarging churches and university colleges.

In the late 1850’s he moved to Norwich and found work as a stonemason but in 1865 married Eliza Olley and moved to London where he was involved in the rebuilding of the House of Commons.

He became involved in the struggle for universal suffrage and joined the Reform League and took part in several demonstrations and meetings in the build up to the passing of the 1867 Reform Act.

IN 1872 he took part in the campaign to reduce the working week and an increase in the hourly wage paid in the building industry, he soon emerged as one of the leaders of the stonemasons and took part in the negotiations with the employers. He gave up his work as a stonemason to become a full-time union official.

In 1883 he was elected secretary of the Labour Representation League, an organisation that was attempting to enable working men to be elected to the House of Commons. The LBR sponsored thirteen trade union candidates in the 1874 General Election and two of them were elected as Lib-Labs MP‘s. Broadhurst played an important role to have the Masters and Servants Act repealed and in 1875 the Conservative government, led by Benjamin Disraeli, agreed to the TUC’s proposals. As a result the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act was passed by Parliament in 1875 which secured the right to participate in peaceful picketing. In the 1880 General Election Broadhurst was elected Liberal MP for Stoke-upon-Trent.

In the House of Commons he led the campaign for a government commission to investigate working-class housing. In the 1885 General Election he was elected for the Bordesley seat in Birmingham. After the election William Gladstone offered Broadhurst the post of Under Secretary at the Home Office and became the first working man to become a government minister. However his loyal support of the Liberal government upset some trade union leaders, James Keir Hardie remarked that the minister was more Liberal than Labour.

In the 1892 general Election Broadhurst was defeated at West Nottingham, his objection to the eight-hour day had lost him the support of local workers. He was eventually re-elected as an MP at Leicester in 1894, he held this seat until his retirement before the 1906 General Election.

He died at Cromer on the 11th October, 1911.