Randal Cremer

Facts

William Randal Cremer

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William Randal Cremer
The Nobel Peace Prize 1903

Born: 18 March 1828, Fareham, United Kingdom

Died: 22 July 1908, London, United Kingdom

Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom

Role: Member, British Parliament; Secretary, International Arbitration League

Prize motivation: “for his longstanding and devoted effort in favour of the ideas of peace and arbitration”

Prize share: 1/1

Father of the Inter-Parliamentary Union

William Randal Cremer was nicknamed the “Member of Arbitration” by his colleagues in Parliament. This was not without reason. All his life he worked for the use of arbitration to resolve international conflicts, with the aim of preventing war.

Cremer held prominent positions of trust in the popular peace movement, and took the initiative for the establishment of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1889. The organization provided a forum where elected representatives of different countries could cooperate. It was a triumph for Cremer that the Hague Conference in 1899 resolved to establish an international court of arbitration. In Parliament, Cremer spoke out fearlessly against war, among other things criticizing the British Government for the Boer War in South Africa.

Randal Cremer's origins were humble. He was apprenticed as a carpenter, and became a trade unionist before being elected to Parliament. In 1907 King Edward VII dubbed the old peace activist a knight, and released Cremer from the obligation to wear a sword at the ceremony.

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