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Randal Cremer birth anniversary: Interesting facts about 1903 Nobel Peace Prize winner
An English Liberal Member of Parliament, a pacifist and the winner of the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the international arbitration movement, Sir William Randal Cremer was born on March 18, 1828.
An English Liberal Member of Parliament, a pacifist and the winner of the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the international arbitration movement, Sir William Randal Cremer was born on March 18, 1828.
With his father abandoning his family soon after his birth, Randal’s mother ensured he had education at a local Methodist school. He went on to apprentice as a builder and started working as a carpenter before moving to London in 1852, and becoming a union organizer. He would go on to become a labour leader of some repute soon afterwards.
While Randal was known to heavily involve himself in campaigning for progressive causes and was respected by Karl Marx, the Nobel Laureate did not see eye to eye with the Marxist movement.
With an aim to represent the labour classes in Parliament, Cremer stood for Warwick in 1868 and again in 1874 elections, but did not win. However, after the third Reform Bill of 1885, when the new constituency of Haggerston was created, consisting almost entirely of working class men, he was elected to Parliament in 1885, 1886, and 1892. Though he lost in 1895, he was re-elected in 1900 and managed to retain his seat till death.
Cremer advocated for peace being the only acceptable state for mankind and arbitration the method through which it could be achieved.
His work led to the formation of a workingmen committee in 1870 which promoted England’s neutrality during the Franco-Prussian conflict.
The committee became the Workmen’s Peace Association in 1871 and later the International Arbitration League.
The works of Cremer also include preparing the ground for the Hague peace conference of 1899 and 1907.
Cremer won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1903 in recognition for his work in the arbitration movement. Of the 8,000 pound award he received, he donated 7,000 pounds as an endowment for the International Arbitration League.
Cremer was also named Chevalier of the French Légion d’honneur and won the Norwegian Knighthood of Saint Olaf. He was knighted in 1907.
A lonely man whose first wife passed away in 1876 and his second wife in 1884, Cremer had no children and stricken by pneumonia, died on July 22, 1908.
