Henry Underhill, Baron Underhill

Henry Reginall Underhill, Baron Underhill CBE (8 May 1914 – 12 March 1993), was a British party worker and Labour politician.

Background He was the youngest son of Henry James Underhill and his wife Alice Maud Butler. Underhill was educated at Leyton Central School and left it in 1929. During the Second World War, Underhill refused to fight, citing his socialism, however served in the National Fire Service in London, often acting as a driver. He was then administrative assistant to the party's national agent until 1947 and worked as propaganda officer until the next year. His work involved reporting on the Militant tendency as entrists into the Labour Party, eventually leading to their expulsion from the party. Underhill was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours and on his retirement from his post in 1979, he was created a life peer with the title Baron Underhill, of Leyton, in Greater London on 12 July. He became Labour's Opposition front bench spokesman on transport in the House of Lords in 1980 and on electoral affairs in 1983.