CAPTAIN DAVID HENDERSON
MIDDLESEX REGIMENT
15TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 27
BURIED: LONDON CEMETERY AND EXTENSION, LONGUEVILLE, FRANCE
Captain David Henderson was the eldest son of the Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson MP, a leading Trade Unionist, Labour politician and Labour member of Asquith's Coalition Government. David Henderson too was a Trade Unionist; he was a member of the British Steel Smelters' Union and worked in the office of John Hodge, the Labour MP for Manchester, Gorton.
Arthur Henderson was opposed to the Government taking Britain into war but nevertheless, once she was at war he supported it. His son, David, enlisted a month after the outbreak in September 1914. He was gazetted Second Lieutenant in February 1915 and obtained his captaincy that June. He was killed in action on the Somme on 15 September 1916, the same day as the Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith.
David Henderson's inscription comes from 'A Poem upon the Death of His Late Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland' by John Dryden (1631-1700). Cromwell was admired by the Labour Party for his radical politics but was still a controversial figure even at the beginning of the twentieth century for his republicanism and his suppression of Ireland.
In supporting the war, Arthur Henderson had wanted not simply a British victory but a just and democratic peace. As Labour Foreign Secretary, 1929-1931, he supported the League of Nations, sought the resolution of international incidents by diplomatic means and worked hard to support the peace his son's death had bought. Arthur Henderson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1934: "Peace was the prize of all his toil and care".