UK Nobel Peace Prize Winners Trivia Quiz

Answer: International arbitration

Randal Cremer (he usually omitted his first name) was born in 1828, son of a coach driver. He graduated as a carpenter. When he moved to London in 1852, he enrolled in trade union politics. From 1885 to 1895 and from 1900 to his death, Randal was a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party.
Cremer was one of the founders of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a discussion forum for members of parliament from different countries seeking to resolve international tensions by peaceful negotiations and arbitration.

Answer: Sir Austen Chamberlain

Sir Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) had studied politics in Cambridge, Paris and Berlin. In 1892 he was elected Member of Parliament, and from 1895 he held several government functions (among others Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1924 until 1929).
Sir Austen Chamberlain decided to do something about the rising tension between France and Germany after the First World War. In 1925 the Treaties of Locarno were negotiated. The principal treaty of Locarno (signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and the UK) established the western border of Germany "for eternity". Alas, Germany withdrew from this treaty a few years later, and the rest is history.
Sir Austen's half-brother was Neville, Prime Minister from 1937-1940.
The red herrings were sons of later Prime Ministers.

Answer: Journalist

Sir Ralph Norman Angell (1872-1967) won the Nobel Peace Prize for his essay "The Great Illusion" (published in 1912 and revised in 1933), in which he demonstrated that conquering territory could not be beneficial for a nation's wealth. Only peaceful trading can advance a nation's wealth.
Angell worked as a news reporter and made it to the Paris editor of the "Daily Mail". When he returned to the UK in 1914, he became involved in politics for the Labour Party. During the years 1929-1931, he was Member of Parliament.

Answer: Labour

Arthur Henderson was born in Glasgow in 1863. After having worked in a steel factory, he started his political career within a trade union. In 1900 Henderson was one of the trade unionists who founded the Labour Representation committee, which would later evolve to the Labour party.
Henderson was the first Labour minister, as President of the Board of Education under the coalition government led by Herbert Asquith from 1915 till 1916. On three separate occasions, Henderson was reelected as leader of the Labour party (1908-1910, 1914-1917 and 1931-1932).
Henderson was a faithful supporter of the League of Nations. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his work for the League, particularly its efforts in disarmament".
Arthur Henderson died in 1935.

Answer: Esperanto

Lord Edward Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil was born in 1864 as a son to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the thrice Prime Minsiter of the UK.
Robert Cecil qualified as a lawyer. In 1906 he was elected Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party. In 1916, as under-secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Cecil was one of the first to propose a League of Nations which should resolve international disputes peacefully.
International negotiations are frequently hampered by language issues. So Cecil proposed to use one single language as working language, and it should be a language which was not the official language of any of the members, to put each and every delegation on the same footing.
That's why Cecil, who avidly studied the artificial language Esperanto, proposed to use only Esperanto in international relations.
Lord Robert Cecil died in 1958.

Answer: Scotland

Johhn Boyd Orr was born in 1880 near Kilmarnock, Scotland. He studied biology and medecine in Glasgow. Having witnessed the consequences of poverty and malnutrition, Boyd Orr ventured into scientific research on nutrition.
From 1945 until 1948 he was Driector-General of the Food and Agricultural Organization.
John Boyd Orr donated the profits of his Nobel Prize to various organizations devoted to world peace.

Answer: An Olympic medal

Noel-Baker (1889-1982) started an amateur athlete career, competing at the track and field events (notably 800m and 1500m) at the Olympics in 1912, 1920 and 1924. In 1920 he won a silver medal in the 1500m.
During the Great War, Noel-Baker drove ambulances. As a conscientious objector he refused to carry arms.
After the Great War, Noel-Baker enrolled in politics as an avid supporter of the League of Nations. He was member of parliament from 1929 until 1931 and again from 1936 to 1970.
Noel-Baker died in 1982.

Answer: The Community for Peace People

Betty Williams was born in Belfast in 1943. In 1976, she was one of the witnesses to a violent attack, in which an IRA activist ran over three young children whilst firing gunshots at the police.
Williams tried to help the victims, but to no avail.
Within two days after this incident Betty Williams filed a petition with 6,000 signatures to the government, asking for a peaceful solution. She followed up this petition with a peaceful march to the graves of the dead children, but the IRA disturbed this manifestation.
The Community for Peace People was at first a women's organization, now open for anyone subscribing the principles of non-violent coexistence. As Williams declared: "We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society."

Answer: Corrigan was their aunt

Mairead Corrigan (born 1944) was the aunt of the three children. Corrigan's sister, Anne Maguire, tried to start a new life in New Zealand, but as Anne could not cope with the loss of her children, she committed suicide in 1980. Anne's widower Jackie would later marry Mairead Corrigan (nowadays thus known as Mairead Maguire).
Mairead Corrigan continues the work for the Community for Peace People, and she raises her voice at any occasion of violent oppression.

Answer: David Trimble

Trimble was born in 1944 in Bangor, Northern Ireland. He studied law in Belfast and rose in the Ulster Unionist Party to become the overall leader. As a result of the Good Friday Agreement, there was need for a new government in Northern Ireland. Trimble was appointed First Minister of Northern Ireland in July 1998, with Seamus Mallon as deputy First Minister. In 2001 Mark Durkan would succeed to Seamus Mallon.
Trimble resigned as First Minister in 2001.
Player flopsymopsy instructed me that since 1998, Northern Ireland does NOT have a Prime Minister, but the equivalent title of First Minister.