David Hardman

David Rennie Hardman (18 October 1901 – 6 December 1989) was a British Labour Party politician.

David Hardman (left) is welcomed by general Hugo Cederschiöld during a visit to Sweden in 1951.

Although he was born in London, David Hardman moved to Coleraine in Ireland with his parents when he was very young because his father (also David Hardman) was made head of Coleraine Technical Academy. He grew up in Coleraine with his sisters Grace (b 1903?) and Alice (b 1913?). His brother Partick was born in 1915 (?) but grew up in Barrow-in-Furness in Lancashire.

David Hardman's education was interrupted by the First World War and it is understood he was called up when he was 17 on or after 18 October 1918. Whilst little is known of his military service, he maintained to his family he was sent to Belgium to bury the dead, which could well be true.

David deferred his place at Christ's College, Cambridge because of his military service, but, once at Cambridge he became the first Socialist President of the Cambridge Union in 1924. His parents had been members of the Fabian Society and he was an active socialist.

He unsuccessfully contested Cambridge at the 1929 general election. At the 1945 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington, defeating the sitting Conservative MP Charles Peat.

Hardman held the seat until the 1951 general election, when he was defeated by the Conservative Fergus Graham. In the Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Education.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Hardman