Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison

Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison (born Jan. 3, 1888, London—died March 6, 1965, Sidcup, Kent, Eng.) was a British Labour statesman who played a leading role in London local government for 25 years and was a prominent member of the coalition government in World War II and of the postwar Labour governments.

From about 1905 Morrison was constantly engaged in socialist politics, and in December 1914 he became part-time secretary of the newly formed London Labour Party. He became mayor of the London borough of Hackney in November 1919 and in March 1922 was elected to the London county council for East Woolwich. He was member of Parliament for South Hackney from 1923 to 1924 during Ramsay MacDonald’s first government and regained his seat in 1929. As minister of transport in the second MacDonald government, he was responsible for the Road Traffic Act of 1930 and the London Passenger Transport Act of 1931. Morrison again lost his parliamentary seat in 1931 but won it back in 1935 and became the dominant influence in turning the Labour Party away from its post-1931 extremism toward a pragmatic reformism.

On the formation of Winston Churchill’s coalition government in May 1940, Morrison became minister of supply. The following October he became home secretary and minister of home security. He held these offices until 1945, also serving in the war cabinet from 1942. In the 1945 general election he organized the Labour Party’s victory. Lord president of the council, deputy prime minister, and leader of the House of Commons in Clement Attlee’s governments, he was highly successful in carrying through a heavy legislative program. He became foreign secretary in March 1951 but was less successful in that post, which he held until his party lost office five months later. When Attlee retired from the leadership of the Labour Party in December 1955, Morrison, who had been deputy leader since 1951, was a candidate but was defeated by Hugh Gaitskell. He retired from the House of Commons in 1959 and was created a life peer.

His publications include Socialisation and Transport (1933), How London Is Governed (1949), Government and Parliament (1954), and Herbert Morrison (1960).