1856-1915. Scottish socialist, member of
Parliament 1892-95 and 1900-15. He worked in
the mines as a boy and in 1886 became
secretary of the Scottish Miners' Federation.
In 1888 he was the first Labour candidate to
stand for Parliament; he entered Parliament
independently as a Labour member in 1892 and
was a chief founder of the Independent Labour
Party in 1893. Hardie was born in Lanarkshire
but represented the parliamentary
constituencies of West Ham, London, 1892-95
and Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, from 1900. A
pacifist, he strongly opposed the Boer War,
and his idealism in his work for socialism
and the unemployed made him a popular hero.