BORN in Glasgow in 1863, Arthur Henderson was the illegitimate son of a domestic servant but went on to be a pioneering figure in British politics.

His family moved to Newcastle when he was nine and he went on to work as an iron moulder and became involved in the trade union movement.

In 1900, he was one of the original 129 delegates who formed the Labour Representation Committee, the forerunner of the Labour Party, and became the movement’s fourth MP when he won the Barnard Castle by-election in 1903, going on to represent the constituency for 15 years, and also served as mayor of Darlington.

In 1908 he succeeded Keir Hardie as leader of the Labour Party - a post he would hold on three separate occasions - and made history in 1915 when he became Labour’s first Cabinet Minister in the wartime coalition.

Henderson was appointed Home Secretary in the first Labour Government formed in 1922 and returned as Foreign Secretary in Ramsey MacDonald’s 1929 Government.

A Methodist convert, Henderson spent his later career trying to curb escalating European tensions.

He established diplomatic relations with the newly-created Soviet Union, committed Great Britain to the League of Nations and chaired the Geneva Disarmament Conference.

In 1934, just a year before his death, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to halt the slide to war.

The citation describes him as being "among the bravest and most faithful" in striving for peace, praised his "tact and unfailing courtesy and prudent reserve" and his "indestructible endurance and a never-ending patience".