In 1947, Bevan stated "All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain the benefits we had in Tredegar for a generation or more. [117] His last speech in the House of Commons, in the debate of 3 November 1959 on the Queen's Speech,[118] referred to the difficulties of persuading the electorate to support a policy which would make them less well-off in the short term, but more prosperous in the long term. [42], In August 1939 came the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact between the Nazi and Soviet governments that shocked democratic governments around the world. [52] An administrative committee voted 71 to 60 in favour of retaining Bevan as an MP,[53] although it was announced that party discipline was to be strengthened in future. [22][23] He had solid support from his constituency, being one of the few Labour MPs to be unopposed in the 1931 General Election, and this support grew through the 1930s and the period of the Great Depression. Aneurin Bevan was the son of coal miner David Bevan and Phoebe, a seamstress. While this was not an insignificant achievement: the 850,000 homes built in the four years immediately after the war ended was the biggest housing programme ever introduced,[78] Bevan's rate of house-building was seen as less of an achievement than that of his Conservative (indirect) successor, Harold Macmillan, who was able to complete some 300,000 new homes a year as Minister for Housing in the 1950s. The National Health Service and the Welfare State have come to be used as interchangeable terms, and in the mouths of some people as terms of reproach. In the coming decade, his support grew, particularly through the Great Depression. Image Credit: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw58048/Aneurin-Bevan / Wikimedia Commons, The Road to the Crown - Elizabeth I's Coronation Procession, Built by a Giantess? Conway was a local miner who had been elected to the Bedwellty Board of Guardians and offered Bevan advice on overcoming his stammer, stating "if you can't say it, you don't know it". In 1928, Bevan won a seat on Monmouthshire County Council and was elected as the MP for Ebbw Vale the following year. Who was Aneurin Bevan, when did he create the NHS and where - The Sun After the landslide Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Bevan was appointed minister of health, responsible for establishing the National Health Service. [92], Bevan's last decade saw his political position weaken year by year as he failed to find a winning issue that would make use of his skills. After eighteen months of ongoing dispute between the Ministry of Health and the BMA, Bevan finally managed to win over the support of the vast majority of the medical profession by offering a couple of minor concessions, including allowing consultants to keep their own private practices and continuing to allow doctors to be paid in capitation fees rather than salaries,[66] but without compromising the fundamental principles of his National Health Service proposals. He lost the seat in 1931, but regained it in 1932 before deciding against seeking re-election in 1934. [9][20] In keeping with his background, Bevan described his initial thoughts on the House of Commons as a shrine to "the most conservative of all religions ancestor worship". Later today he will be taken home to Wales. The facts, figures and quotes that shaped the history of the National Health Service . Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan (1897-1960) was the Labour MP for Ebbw Vale in south Wales from 1929-60. By 1932, Mosley's New Party had migrated from the left over to the far-right of British politics and was rebranded as the British Union of Fascists. [42] He emphasised that the government had no arguments to persuade young men to fight "except merely in another squalid attempt to defend themselves against the redistribution of international swag". This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Icon of 1960s Britain: Who Was Mary Quant? [106] Bevan's remark that "I know the right kind of political Leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine" was assumed to refer to Gaitskell, although Bevan denied it (commenting upon Gaitskell's record as Chancellor of the Exchequer as having "proved" this). 12. Bevan was a supporter of the Liberal Party as a child, but later converted to socialism and joined the Independent Labour Party. Whether you want to learn the history of a city, or you simply need a recommendation for your next meal, Discover Walks Team offers an ever-growing travel encyclopaedia. He criticised figures such as Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George for their attitude towards workers rights, and as a result of his strong stance enjoyed consistent support from his constituency, and was one of few Labour MPs to be unopposed in the 1931 General Election. In 1929, Bevan was elected as the Labour member of parliament for Ebbw Vale. He won the seat easily and made it to parliament. Bevan always stood up for the underdog, and was a voice for the unemployed in the period between the two world wars when joblessness was a major domestic political issue. [11] Bevan remained at the college until 1921, attending at a time when a number of his contemporaries from South Wales, including Jim Griffiths, were also students at the college. This was after he had won a seat on the Monmouthshire County Council in 1928. But the lowest paid a tax rate of 1%, up from 0.2% in 1938, the middle income brackets paid 14% to 26%, up from 10% to 18% in 1938, the higher earners paid 42%, up from 29%, and the top earners 77%, up from 58% in 1938. multi-national defence organisation in Asia and the Pacific, subsequent Anglo-French military response, Political history of the United Kingdom (1945present), "Aneurin Bevan, stormy petrel of the Labour left", "Dying father inspired Nye Bevan's NHS dream", "Britain's near-brush with Fascism: The politician who rooted for Hitler", "Play tells the inspiring story of political couple Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee", "How Jennie Lee helped Aneurin Bevan shape political change", "70 years of the NHS: How Aneurin Bevan created our beloved health service", "Let Us Face the Future: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation", "NHS 70: Aneurin Bevan Day celebrations in Tredegar", "Housing owned by the people for the people Nye would have approved", "Bevan's speech to the Manchester Labour rally", "Major John Freeman: Soldier who became an MP, diplomat and broadcaster best known for his series of interviews, Face to Face", "In Place of Fear A Free Health Service 1952", "Mr. Bevan and Others Awarded 2,500 Each", "Did you know NHS founder Aneurin Bevan lived in Bucks? He became minister of labour in January 1951 but resigned from the government the following April in protest against the rearmament program, which necessitated sharp cutbacks in social expenditures. He knelt reverently in respect to a friend or friend's faith, but he never pretended to be anything other than what he was, a humanist. In 1959, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and held the post for a year until his death from stomach cancer at the age of 62. In Parliament, he became a vocal critic of numerous other politicians from all parties, particularly Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. 'Nye is asleep next door. [59] Bevan had clashed frequently with Attlee during his time as an MP, believing that the Labour leader failed to apply enough pressure on the Tory government during the war. Bevan's past association with Mosley would be used against him in subsequent years by his political rivals. Aneurin Bevan Facts: Aneurin Bevan was a Welsh Labour politician widely considered the architect of the National Health Service. David Bevan was born in Tredegar but his family had originally hailed from Carmarthenshire, and he followed his own father into the mines, starting work at 5:30am each day and returning home late in the evening. He was not, apparently, one of the most diligent students, and found it difficult to follow an organised routine, including arising early for breakfast. Bevan had said "I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one". The move was seen by some as a sideways or backwards step, although a potential rearmament program was expected to make the post of future importance. However, by the end of his tenure, he had declared Bevan as "the best minister we have had". [60] He earned a rebuke from Attlee, but Bevan contended that his Welsh mining constituency did not send him to Parliament to "dress up", and he declined to wear formal attire at further Buckingham Palace functions. But it means abandonment of the class struggle and the subservience of the British workers to their own employers. Bevan had been inspired by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in his hometown, where residents would pay a subscription that would fund access for all of the town's inhabitants to have free access to medical services such as nursing or dental care. Aneurin Bevan - Wikipedia His autobiography, In Place of Fear, appeared in 1952, Aneurin Bevan. Aneurin Bevan was born on 15 November 1897 at 32 Charles Street in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, a working-class mining town, where an estimated 90 per cent of the town's inhabitants relied on the local mines for employment. His influence waned after his departure, although a left-wing group (not under his control) within the party became known as "Bevanites". [43] Bevan was relieved that the country had united against Nazi Germany in the fight against fascism to provide a common enemy away from the working class. He first became an MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929. Aneurin Bevan | Encyclopedia.com Bevan left school at 13 and began working in a local colliery. Photo by Howard Coster - Wikimedia Commons, Portrait of Aneurin Bevan. Before entering Parliament, Bevan was involved in miner's union politics and was a leading figure in the 1926 general strike. Bevan was not good academically and was at a time repeated for a year in school. The club intended to break the hold that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company had on the town by becoming members of pivotal groups in the community. It was during this period that he became convinced by the ideas of socialism. [22], Soon after Bevan entered Parliament, he was briefly attracted to Smethwick Labour MP Oswald Mosley's arguments,[24] becoming one of the 17 signatories of the Mosley Memorandum in the context of the MacDonald government's repeated economic crises,[25] including the doubling of unemployment levels. His nomination received a severe blow on the same day it was announced, when two unions that traditionally sided with the left, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Amalgamated Engineering Union, pledged their support for his opponent. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aneurin-Bevan, British Broadcasting Corporation - Biography of Aneurin Bevan, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Aneurin Bevan. When the strike started on 3 May 1926, Bevan soon emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners. He developed a severe stammer as a child and, according to his younger sister Myfanwy, became "a lonely chap", due to the need to shy away from the attention it brought him.[5]. He was Chief of Staff in Spain, he won the Battle of the Ebro, and he is a sergeant. In 1987, a bronze statue of Bevan was erected in the city centre of Cardiff, while the Aneurin Bevan Memorial Stones were erected at the beginning of the Sirhowy Valley Walk with three smaller stones (representing three towns of his constituency Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Tredegar) surrounding a larger stone, which represents Bevan. Along that road is endless retreat, and at the end of it a voluntary totalitarian State with ourselves erecting the barbed wire around. Inspired by the Tredger Medical Aid Society of South Wales, Bevan initiated the National Health Service (NHS), which was managed with public funds and aimed to provide free medical . [69][70] The removal of the criteria of "working class" from local authority housing provision was seen as a first step, widening access to the council housing that was becoming an ever larger part of the UK housing stock and which made up a majority of new homes built after the war. Aneurin Bevan Worksheets & Facts | Life, Political Career, Legacy Bevan was also limited due to his desire for new homes to be bigger and of better quality than the ones they were being built to replace, based on the recommendations of a 1943 report by the Dudley Committee, and a shortage of skilled workers to undertake the work. FIGHT FOR OUR NHS free at the point of need for all. Bevan Festival - Home - Facebook In Parliament, Bevan argued that this was the logical outcome of the government's foreign policy. He was convinced that. He would be studying economics, history, and politics for the next two years while in that school. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Bevan was actually against British membership of the Common Market. One of ten children (though four died in infancy and one at eight years old), Bevans father was a coal miner and Baptist, while his mother a seamstress and follower of Methodism. His work in the mines paid off as he gained sponsorship from the South Wales Miners Federation to study at Central Labour College in 1919. Despite resistance from opposition parties and the British Medical Association, the National Health Service Act 1946 was passed and launched in 1948, nationalising more than 2,500 hospitals within the United Kingdom. Aneurin Nye Bevan (1897-1960) is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history. Bevan was a great personal charm but was sometimes so rude to opponents that Churchill once called him a merchant of discourtesy. full audio of Bevan's speech at the 4 November 1956 Trafalgar Square rally against British action in Suez. Bevan led the left wing of the Labour Party, known as the 'Bevanites', for the next five years. Like many other students of Bevans class, his formal education ended when he was 14 years of age when he began to work in the mines. Aneurin Bevanand other members were briefly suspended from the Labour Party in March 1939 as he advocated for a united socialist front of all parties of the left. [19] With his success in 1928, he was picked as the Labour Party candidate for Ebbw Vale (displacing the sitting MP Evan Davies),[20] and easily held the seat at the 1929 General Election. He was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children. Bevan attended the local school, where he was deeply shy because of a severe stammer that he developed as a child. To achieve mastery as a speaker, he had first to overcome a speech impediment. Photo by Kaihsu Tai on 2005-07-07 Wikimedia Commons. Bevan accused the government of a "policy of bankruptcy and despair",[111] stating at the Trafalgar rally: We are stronger than Egypt but there are other countries stronger than us. History Hit Launches on Comcasts Entertainment Platforms in the US. [84][85] During his tenure, he helped to secure a deal for railwaymen which provided them with a significant pay increase. [14], Upon returning home in 1921, he found that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company refused to re-employ him. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. [102] In July of the same year, Bevan announced his intention to stand for election as the Treasurer of the Labour Party against Hugh Gaitskell. [46] Historian Max Hastings described Bevan's role in Parliament during the war as "his figures were accurate but his scorn was at odds with the spirit of the momentfull of gratitude, as was the prime minister". Nye gave us the greatest Socalist model ever seen in 1948. The manager of the colliery found an excuse to get him dismissed. Conway is in the middle of the picture. Photo by Howard Coster Wikimedia Commons. As minister of health in Clement Attlees Labour government of 1945, he was responsible for developing housing programs and for establishing the National Health Service. Why Did Shakespeare Paint Richard III as a Villain? [36] He was a strong critic of Chamberlain, arguing that his old rival Winston Churchill should become prime minister. The collective principle asserts that no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means. Perhaps the greatest and certainly one of the most controversial of Labour Party politicians, Bevan was born in Tredegar, a miner's son in a dissenting family. Bevan foresaw that it would always be the subject of public debate, warning that "This service must always be changing, growing and improving; it must always appear to be inadequate." With his posture in parliament, he gained great support from his constituents. However, the. At the age of 13, in his last months of schooling, he worked as a butcher's boy at a local store. [29][30] They were early supporters of the socialists in the Spanish Civil War, and Bevan visited the country in 1938. [34] Bevan was readmitted to the party on 20 December 1939,[35] after agreeing "to refrain from conducting or taking part in campaigns in opposition to the declared policy of the Party".[36][37]. [57][58] These reforms were achieved in the face of great financial difficulty following the war. [127] Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell also paid tribute to his former shadow cabinet member and ended his speech by labelling Bevan as "one of the great men of our day". Nye Bevan Speech (1946) - YouTube He was the son of coal miner David Bevan and Phoebe (ne Prothero), a seamstress. Aneurin Bevan was one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour government and the chief architect of the National Health Service. Contact, Facts are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. [134][135] Numerous institutions bear Bevan's name, including the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, and Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, a hospital located within his old Ebbw Vale constituency. In 2004, more than 44 years after his death, he was voted first in a list of 100 Welsh Heroes, having been credited for his contribution to the founding of the welfare state in the UK. [133] The following year, Bevan was voted number one in the 100 Welsh Heroes poll, a response to find the public's favourite Welsh people of all time. [45] Bevan also feared that allowing Churchill to continue unopposed and unchallenged in Parliament during the war would leave him almost unbeatable for the Labour Party in future elections. Reciting long passages by William Morris with the help of an elocution tutor, Bevan gradually began to overcome the stammer that he had since childhood. Nonetheless, for the next few years, Bevan was at the centre of controversy within the party earning the nickname Nye the Rhetorician and ultimately gave his name to the partys more left-leaning radical wing, which included campaigning for nuclear disarmament. [51] He also voiced criticism of trade union leaders, which drew complaints from both the Miners' Federation and the Trades Union Congress. In 1926, he became a key leader of the South Wales miners during a General Strike, being largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and for forming the Council of Action, an organisation that helped to raise money and provide food for the workers. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aneurin_Bevan&oldid=1149734012, Fairlie, Henry. He died on 6 July 1960. Portrait of Aneurin Bevan. Bevan Festival. Thus, the responsibility for instituting a new and comprehensive National Health Service, as well as tackling the country's severe post-war housing shortage, was given to Bevan, the youngest member of Attlee's Cabinet in his first ministerial position at the age of 47. [45][by whom? 'Father of the NHS': Who Was Aneurin Bevan? | History Hit [6] He worked at the butcher's for several months before leaving school, instead working in the local Ty-Trist Colliery. [18], In 1928, Bevan won a seat on Monmouthshire County Council in the Tredegar Central Division. Additionally, he was a brilliant spontaneous debater and a colorful public personality. Aneurin Bevan - Former Secretary of State for Health, Facts, Childhood [5] Bevan also joined the Tredegar branch of the South Wales Miners' Federation and became a trade union activist: he was head of his local Miners' Lodge at 19 years of age. He published the bookIn Place of Fear in 1952, which became the most read socialist book at the time. A poll in 2013 conducted on behalf of British Future found that the NHS was more popular then than at its creation, and was more popular than the monarchy, BBC and British Armed Forces. He believed that a civilized society should be able to provide medical care for all of its citizens for free so that anyone in need of medical care, no matter what they earn, can have access to it. Along with this, the Medical Practices Committee was to oversee the distribution of GP practices a proposal which the previous Coalition Minister had withdrawn after opposition from the British Medical Association. [75][79] Macmillan was also able to concentrate full-time on the housing crisis, instead of being obliged, like Bevan, to combine his housing portfolio with that for Health (which for Bevan took the higher priority: he once stated tongue-in-cheek that he devoted "five minutes a week to housing"). The new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, appointed Bevan as Minister of Health, with a remit that also covered housing. 3. Excerpts from Bevan's speeches are included in Greg Rosen's book Old Labour to New: the dreams that inspired, the battles that divided (published by Methuen in 2005 (ISBN978-1-84275-045-2)). ", "The NHS: even more cherished than the monarchy and the army", "Aneurin Bevan / 100 Welsh Heroes / 100 Arwyr Cymru", "Hospital named after Aneurin Bevan opens in Ebbw Vale", contributions in Parliament by Aneurin Bevan, Aneurin Bevan and the foundation of the NHS: Socialist Health Association website. If we accept the contention that the common enemy is Hitler and not the British capitalist class, then certainly Churchill is right. [86] However, three months after his appointment, Hugh Gaitskell introduced a proposal of prescription charges for dental care and spectaclescreated to save a potential 25m to meet the financial demands imposed by the Korean War. If we are going to appeal to force, if force is to be the arbiter to which we appeal, it would at least make common sense to try to make sure beforehand that we have got it, even if you accept that abysmal logic, that decadent point of view.We are in fact in the position today of having appealed to force in the case of a small nation, where if it is appealed to against us it will result in the destruction of Great Britain, not only as a nation, but as an island containing living men and women. He often quoted an 1855 passage from Karl Marx that was published in The New York Times in 1865: "The redeeming feature of war is that it puts a nation to the test. What does Aneurin Bevan's legacy mean today? - Cardiff University Aneurin Bevan Photo by Spudgun67 Wikimedia Commons. [7], Bevan became a well-known local orator and was seen by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, as a troublemaker. [72], Substantial bombing damage, with over 700,000 homes needing repair in London alone,[74] and the continued existence of pre-war slums in many parts of the country made the task of housing reform particularly challenging for Bevan. [112] Speaking at the 1957 Labour Party conference, he decried unilateral nuclear disarmament, saying "It would send a British Foreign Secretary naked into the conference-chamber". His father was a miner and the poor working class family in which Bevan grew up gave him first-hand experience of the problems of poverty and disease. He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism. The NHS is a massive employer. His "vermin" speech still resonated: imagination shuddered at a repetition of that on the international stage. Aneurin Bevan was born on November 15, 1897, in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, to David Bevan and Phoebe nee Prothero. [12] In Parliament, he became noticed as a harsh critic of those he felt opposed the working man and woman. Rediscovering Richard III with Matt Lewis, Rome and the Amalfi Coast with Tristan Hughes, Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, How Rome Became the Sole Superpower in the Mediterranean, Charles Martel: A Heroic Leader of Medieval Europe. He agreed to serve as shadow foreign secretary under Gaitskell. There is a man in the British Army who flung 150,000 men across the Ebro in Spain, Michael Dunbar. Bevan shared a liberal ideology and was additionally a supporter of the Liberal party that had a change of ideology to socialism after reading Robert Blatchfords in the Clarion. This is often quoted as "I stuffed their mouths with gold". Indeed, he was increasingly critical of his own party, and from 1940 to 1945 was the editor of the independent Socialist Tribune. Corrections? [121] In May 1960 Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, while in England visited Bevan at his home in Asheridge Farm (where Bevan was a keen amateur farmer, keeping cattle and pigs).[122]. Winston Churchill, the target of numerous diatribes from Bevan during his career, commented that Bevan was "one of the few members that I will sit still and listen to". Bevan was named Minister of Labour in 1951, but resigned after two months in office, when the Attlee government proposed the introduction of prescription charges for dental and vision care and decided to transfer funds from the National Insurance Fund to pay for rearmament. He became a well-known local orator, and was regarded with suspicion by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company. He was adept at construction and added several modern features when the family moved to 7 Charles Street, installing the first gas stove in the street, an inside toilet and running hot water. Prime Minister Attlee rejected Bevan in favour of Herbert Morrison because he distrusted Bevan's personality. Bevan called for the nationalisation of the coal industry and advocated the opening of a Second Front in Western Europe to help the Soviet Union in its fight with Germany. Photo by Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK - Wikimedia Commons To support our blog and writers we put affiliate links and advertising on our page. In its early stages this proved true, as the service went vastly over budget in its inaugural year, and Attlee was forced to make a radio address to the nation in an attempt to limit the strain on the system. His father was a miner and the poor working class family in which Bevan grew up gave him first-hand experience of the problems. [9] The miners remained on strike for six months. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. [40] When the government introduced voluntary national service in December 1938, Bevan argued that Labour should demand the nationalisation of the armaments industry, support the democratic government of Spain and sign an Anglo-Soviet pact in return for its support. [91], Later the same year, the Labour Party were defeated at the general election. Indeed, these factors, exacerbated by post-war restrictions on the availability of building materials and skilled labour, collectively served to limit Bevan's achievements in this area.
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