Edgar Lansbury

Edgar Isaac Lansbury (3 April 1887 – 28 May 1935) was a British Communist politician. His daughter was the actress Angela Lansbury.

Life and career Lansbury was the son of Elizabeth (née Brine) and politician George Lansbury, who was leader of the Labour Party during the 1930s. He grew up in Poplar in London, and joined the Civil Service at a young age. In 1910, he left to set up with his brother William Arthur Lansbury and friend Louis Coleman as timber merchants, using a loan of £1,000 to launch the business.

Lansbury was elected to Poplar Council in 1912, serving alongside his father. He represented both the Labour Party and (after its foundation in 1920) the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He also supported Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes, serving as Honorary Treasurer in 1915.

In 1917 he became liable to call-up for military service, and an initial application for exemption as a conscientious objector was refused, but the refusal was overturned by the London County Military Service Appeal Tribunal.

In 1921, Lansbury was one of 30 Poplar councillors to be jailed as a result of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, In 1934, Lansbury wrote George Lansbury, My Father. In the work he inadvertently quoted from confidential documents his father had allowed him to see. He was found to have contravened section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, and fined; his book was recalled in order for the text to be censored. He died on 28 May 1935, at home, 7 Weymouth Avenue, Mill Hill, leaving an estate valued for probate at £7,956.

Publications by Lansbury Poplarism; The Truth about the Poplar Scale Relief and the Action of the Ministry of Health (1924) Not active George Lansbury, My Father (1934)