Labour Party deputy leader Herbert Morrison complained that Bevan's attack had backfired, for his words "did much more to make the Tories work and vote than Conservative Central Office could have done". 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. He compared Gamal Abdel Nasser with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from One Thousand and One Nights. 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". He joined the Labour Party and attended Central Labour College in London. In February 1925, his father died of pneumoconiosis, an illness caused by the inhalation of coal dust. He went on to serve as shadow foreign secretary from 1956-59 and deputy leader of the Labour party from 1959-60. 'Nye is asleep next door. [31] In 1936 he joined the board of the new socialist newspaper Tribune. Bevan was critical of the leadership of the British Army, which he felt was class bound and inflexible. "[83], Bevan was instead appointed Minister of Labour in January 1951 in place of George Isaacs. During the 1926 General Strike, Bevan emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners. He had then joined the board of the socialist newspaper, the Tribune in 1936. [7], Bevan became a well-known local orator and was seen by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, as a troublemaker. Aneurin's name is pronounced 'uh-ny-rin'. Bevan died in his sleep at 4.10pm on 6 July 1960, at the age of 62, at his home, Asheridge Farm, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He was convinced that. He died on July 6, 1960, leaving a significant legacy, namely the National Health Service. Why this is so it is not difficult to understand, if you view everything from the angle of a strictly individualistic competitive society. His influence waned after his departure, although a left-wing group (not under his control) within the party became known as "Bevanites". [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. [1][3], The couple had ten children altogethersix boys and four girlsalthough four died in infancy and one died at the age of eight. [54], He believed that the Second World War would give Britain the opportunity to create "a new society". 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. Although the Italians were never sure the British delegation were sober, they always attributed to them an immense political acumen. In 1959, Bevan was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party, although he was already suffering from terminal cancer. [40] Bevan now called unsuccessfully for a Popular Front against fascism under the leadership of the Labour Party, including even anti-fascist Tories. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Therefore I say to Anthony, I say to the British government, there is no count at all upon which they can be defended.They have besmirched the name of Britain. [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. [Nye] was never a hypocrite. You cannot collaborate, you cannot accept the logic of collaboration on a first class issue like rearmament, and at the same time evade the implications of collaboration all along the line when the occasion demands it.[38]. An estimated 125,000 nurses and 5,000 consultants were available to care for hospital patients. When Labour supported the government's scheme with no such conditions, Bevan denounced Labour for imploring the people on recruiting platforms to put themselves under the leadership of their opponents. With his activism and exuberance, his employer Tredegar Iron Company saw him as a troublesome person but he amazingly became a popular local speaker. [41] The Military Training Act 1939 reintroduced conscription six months later, and Bevan joined the rest of the Labour Party in opposing it, calling it "the complete abandonment of any hope of a successful struggle against the weight of wealth in Great Britain". [8][9] He and his brother Billy did eventually leave Ty-Tryst and worked at the Bedwellty pit, but were forced to move again after a disagreement with the site's deputy manager over Bevan reporting information to the miner's inspector. He was elected head of his Miners' Lodge when aged 19, where he frequently railed against management. [50], Bevan was subject to further disciplinary action in 1944, when he deliberately voted against Labour's stance on new defence regulations. He became a trades union activist and won a scholarship to study in London. From 1950, onwards it's been attacked, the reason he resigned from government, but has managed to last 75yrs. In 1928, Bevan won a seat on Monmouthshire County Council and was elected as the MP for Ebbw Vale the following year. Bevan was elected unopposed as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1959, succeeding Griffiths. In 1934,Aneurin BevanmarriedSocialist MP, Jennie Lee. Aneurin Nye Bevan (1897-1960) is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history. We may all come from different walks of life but we have one common passion - learning through travel. Confrontation with the British Medical Association (BMA) was led by Charles Hill, who published a letter in the British Medical Journal describing Bevan as "a complete and uncontrolled dictator". [67][65] Some 2,688 voluntary and municipal hospitals in England and Wales were nationalised and came under Bevan's supervisory control as Health Minister. [38], By March 1938, Bevan was writing in Tribune that Churchill's warnings about German intentions for Czechoslovakia were "a diapason of majestic harmony" compared to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's "thin, listless trickle". Conway is in the middle of the picture. [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". The manager of the colliery found an excuse to get him dismissed. [1], Both Bevan's parents were Nonconformists: his father was a Baptist and his mother a Methodist, although he became an atheist. [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 made him join the Independent Labour Party. Aneurin Bevan Facts: Aneurin Bevan was a Welsh Labour politician widely considered the architect of the National Health Service. Omissions? The NHS is a massive employer. Aneurin Bevan was born on November 15, 1897, in Tredegar, Monmouthshire in the South Wales Valleys. Contact, Facts are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. This statement is often misconstrued: Bevan argued that unilateralism would result in Britain's loss of allies, and one interpretation of his metaphor is that nakedness would come from the lack of allies, not the lack of weapons. Aneurin is second from right on the back row and his brother Billy is second right on front row. 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. The facts, figures and quotes that shaped the history of the National Health Service . We will send you the latest TV programmes, podcast episodes and articles, as well as exclusive offers from our shop and carefully selected partners. This club was aimed at helping members in monetary terms in their times of need. He was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children. 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. Aneurin Bevanwas selected as the Labour Partys parliamentary candidate for Ebbw Vale for the 1929 General Election. [68], Conservative opposition of the National Health Service scheme feared that the sudden access to free health care would be overrun. 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. It was Aneurin Bevan, the Minister of Health in the UK from 1945 to 1951, who started the NHS in 1948. After the war, Bevan was chosen as the Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's new Labour government, becoming the youngest member of the cabinet at 47, with his remit also including housing. Top 15 Things to do Around the Eiffel Tower, 10 Things to Do in Paris on Christmas Day (2022), 10 Things to Do in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. For the next few years Bevan was the centre of controversy within the Labour Party and involuntarily gave his name to the partys radical wing. He is also known for his wider contribution to the founding of the British welfare state. 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. To achieve mastery as a speaker, he had first to overcome a speech impediment. He is known for leading the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) to give medical care free at point-of-need to all Britons. Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960) Atheism Healthcare Politics Social Reform He was a great humanist whose religion lay in loving his fellow men and trying to serve them. "[81] The comment inspired the creation of the Vermin Club by angry Conservatives, who attacked Bevan for years for the metaphor. Bevan was a supporter of the Liberal Party as a child, but later converted to socialism and joined the Independent Labour Party. Photo by Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK Wikimedia Commons. [9] The miners remained on strike for six months. 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. Image Credit: Anenurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester / Wikimedia Commons. 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. Bevan was actually against British membership of the Common Market. BBC Wales documentary, originally aired December 18th 2012.Aneurin Bevan (pronounced /narn/; Welsh: [an.rin]; 15 November 1897 - 6 July 1960), often k. [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. [15] Apart from a six-week period as a labourer for Tredegar Council, he did not find work until 1924 and his employer, the Bedwellty Colliery, closed down ten months later. [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. A colourful public personality and a brilliant spontaneous debater, he had great personal charm but was sometimes so rude to opponents that Churchill once called him a merchant of discourtesy. After his defeat as party leader by Hugh Gaitskell (1955), he accepted his partys policies and became shadow foreign secretary. 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. Get time period newsletters, special offers and weekly programme release emails. Bevan argues that the percentage of tax from personal incomes rose from 9% in 1938 to 15% in 1949. [88][89] Two other ministers, John Freeman and Harold Wilson, resigned at the same time. [57][58] These reforms were achieved in the face of great financial difficulty following the war. Bevan countered that the initial overspending was down to years of underinvestment in the British medical system prior to the Second World War: by the start of the 1950s, the early overspending had come to an end.[65]. In the coming decade, his support grew, particularly through the Great Depression. [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. 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. The Daily Herald stated that some MPs were seen to be crying in Parliament and described how there was "sorrow at every street corner" in the South Wales Valleys. 11. [27] Mosley broke from the Labour Party in early 1931 to form the New Party, but Bevan refused to defect and instead announced that he had no intention of leaving the Labour Party. In 1924, he found a job at the Bedwellty Colliery which would close down in just ten months. 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. The pair went to work at Whitworth Colliery, but fell foul of management when Bevan refused to use cheaper second-hand timber as he deemed it unsafe. The Aneurin Bevan, former Cross Inn, September 2018, This is a photo of the listed building number. He is particularly noted for his tenure as Minister for Health in Clement Attlee's government, in which he pioneered the creation of the British National Health Service. [62] This system proved so popular that 20,000 people supported the organisation during the 1930s. I. 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. full audio of Bevan's speech at the 4 November 1956 Trafalgar Square rally against British action in Suez. Photo by Howard Coster Wikimedia Commons. [127], Bevan's most significant legacy is the National Health Service. On July 5 1948 the National Health Service took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In his political career, Bevan served as a minister of health in Clement Attlees Labor government of 1945, he was responsible for developing housing programs and for establishing the National Health Service. 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. [129], A bronze statue was commissioned by South Glamorgan County Council and erected in 1987 in the city centre of Cardiff. He was called up for service during the First World War, and was briefly arrested when his sister Blodwen burnt his conscription papers and he failed to report for duty. Bevan was as critical of Nasserist Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 as he was of the subsequent Anglo-French military response. [90] Bevan received unanimous support for his actions from his local Labour constituency leaders. On his return to South Wales he struggled to find work, remaining unemployed for nearly three years before gaining employment as a union official, which led to him becoming a leading figure in the 1926 general strike. - Aneurin Bevan, The Lancet, 1948. In 1957, Bevan, Richard Crossman and the Labour Party's General Secretary Morgan Phillips sued The Spectator magazine for libel, after one of its writers described them as drinking heavily during an Italian Socialist Party conference. William Shakespeares Wife: Who Was Anne Hathaway? Bevan's death in 1960 led to "an outpouring of national mourning". [87] The Labour MP David Marquand has stated that the savings were introduced by Gaitskell simply to "impose his will" upon Bevan who he saw as a political rival.
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