[1] He was born into a Scottish family,[2] the son of James Alexander Leo Henderson and Maud Sophia Grace Hardy.
He served with the Scots Guards during the Second World until he was seriously wounded in 1944 during the Battle of Anzio, sustaining injuries from which he never fully recovered, despite undergoing multiple operations over the years.
[3] His brother John Patrick Leo Henderson MC was killed in action in Italy in 1944.
[4] Having been appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1975,[5] he was created a life peer as Baron Henderson of Brompton, of Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and of Brough in the County of Cumbria on 1 February 1984,[6] a nod to the holiday cottage in Brough, Cumbria he owned for more than four decades.
He fought for legal abortion and defended embryology research and in vitro fertilisation: "His battle for gay rights – as against article 28 – was part of his crusade against those underprivileged by discrimination, including young criminals, schizophrenics and homeless mothers with children.