[1][3], The couple had ten children altogethersix boys and four girlsalthough four died in infancy and one died at the age of eight. Bevan then endured another year of unemployment, the family surviving on his sister's wages, when his unemployment benefit was stopped due to her income, and his father's sick pay. We are going to Tredegar-ise you. Former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ended his Prime Ministers Questions two days after Bevans death with a tribute to him, describing him as a great personality and a great national figure. Some historians have questioned how influential the college was on his political development. Bevan gained more than twice the votes of Liberal candidate William Griffiths, receiving 20,000 votes to Griffiths' 8,000. 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]. Pronunciation of Aneurin Bevan: Learn how to pronounce the word Aneurin Bevan.Definition and meaning can be found here: https://www.google.com/search?q=defin. In 1951, Bevan was moved to become minister of labour. Bevan, Aneurin (1897-1960). full audio of Bevan's speech at the 4 November 1956 Trafalgar Square rally against British action in Suez. Two of the key elements of Bevan's proposals were this nationalisation of the hospital services and the abolition of the sale and purchase of goodwill by general practitioners. Bevan argues that the percentage of tax from personal incomes rose from 9% in 1938 to 15% in 1949. We will send you the latest TV programmes, podcast episodes and articles, as well as exclusive offers from our shop and carefully selected partners. 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. Before entering Parliament, Bevan was involved in miner's union politics and was a leading figure in the 1926 general strike. 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. [129], A bronze statue was commissioned by South Glamorgan County Council and erected in 1987 in the city centre of Cardiff. 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. In Parliament, Bevan argued that this was the logical outcome of the government's foreign policy. The National Health Service was launched in 1948, and Bevan is quoted as saying, No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means. Aneurin Bevan was born on November 15, 1897, in Tredegar in Wales. In addition, he is known for his wider contribution to the founding of the British welfare state. Aneurin Bevan was a founding member of the Query Club in 1920 alongside his brother. [125] Jennie Lee explained in a letter to Michael Foot that Bevan had specifically chosen to have a non-religious funeral and not a Christian service, because he was a firm humanist. 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. The son of a miner, Bevan became a colliers helper at age 13 but had to leave the mines in a few years because of eye disease. On the day, Bevan attended a ceremony at the Park Hospital, Trafford (now Trafford General), at which he symbolically received the keys to the hospital. [6] He worked at the butcher's for several months before leaving school, instead working in the local Ty-Trist Colliery. [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". Bevan died from stomach cancer in 1960 at the age of 62. Bevan was largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and the formation of the Council of Action, an organisation that helped to raise money and provide food for the miners. An infuriated Bevan stated that he would never be a member of a government that imposed charges on the National Health Service. 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. Aneurin Bevan with his eye on the Ball. On July 5 1948 the National Health Service took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales. 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. [45][by whom? [128], Bevan was particularly noted for his public speaking, being described by Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, as "the greatest parliamentary speaker since Charles James Fox". 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. [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). He was the architect of the National Health Service and leader of the left-wing (Bevanite) group of the Labour Party. [45] Clement Attlee expressed his support that Bevan should have been the leader of the Labour Party during his lifetime but was held back by his demeanour, stating "he wants to be two things simultaneously, rebel and official leader, and you can't be both". [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. In 2002, Bevan was voted the 45th greatest Briton of all time by a BBC public opinion poll. [57][58] These reforms were achieved in the face of great financial difficulty following the war. [105] After the 1955 general election, Attlee retired as Labour leader. In 1934, he married fellow MP Jennie Lee, who was described as more left-wing than Nye. Use the tabs aboveto learn about Nye Bevans life, work and ideas, as well as the history of the NHS. This is often quoted as "I stuffed their mouths with gold". But seven decades after it was founded, a 2013 opinion poll conducted on behalf of British Future found that the NHS was more popular than at its creation, and more popular than the monarchy, the BBC, and the British Armed Forces. 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". His agitations for a united socialist front of all parties of the left (including the Communist Party of Great Britain) led to his brief expulsion from the Labour Party from March to November 1939 (along with Stafford Cripps, C. P. Trevelyan and three others). After his resignation, Bevan served as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1959. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. The manager of the colliery found an excuse to get him dismissed. 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. [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. In 1957 he argued that sovereignty would be taken away from parliament if Britain was to join, much the same argument as Brexiteers make today. With his posture, the manager of the colliery found reasons to lay him off but with support from the Miners Federation, he was re-employed by the company as his case was seen as victimization. He was first elected as MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929, and used his Parliamentary platform to make a number of influential criticisms of Winston Churchill and his Conservative government during the Second World War. The Aneurin Bevan, former Cross Inn, September 2018, This is a photo of the listed building number. Icon of 1960s Britain: Who Was Mary Quant? [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". "[81] The comment inspired the creation of the Vermin Club by angry Conservatives, who attacked Bevan for years for the metaphor.
BBC - History - Aneurin Bevan KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids. 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. [9] The miners remained on strike for six months. 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". He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism.
BBC Wales - History - Themes - Aneurin Bevan [107] He instead stood again for the role of party treasurer and was duly elected, beating George Brown.[108]. [113] According to the journalist Paul Routledge, Donald Bruce, a former MP and Parliamentary Private Secretary and adviser to Bevan, had told him that Bevan's shift on the disarmament issue was the result of discussions with the Soviet government, where they advised him to push for British retention of nuclear weapons so they could possibly be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States.[114]. [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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). As minister of health in Attlee's postwar government from 1945-51, he spearheaded the creation of the National Health Service in 1948. 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. When Winston Churchill said that the Labour Party should refrain from giving Adolf Hitler the impression that Britain was divided, Bevan rejected this as sinister: The fear of Hitler is to be used to frighten the workers of Britain into silence. Photo by Howard Coster Wikimedia Commons. Soon, thereafter became an activist and initially, a supporter of syndicalism. 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. FIGHT FOR OUR NHS free at the point of need for all. ], In 1951, with the retirement of Ernest Bevin, Bevan was a leading candidate for Foreign Secretary. 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.
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. The same year, Labour were defeated in the General Election. London.A man presents Mr Aneurin (Nye) Bevan, Minister of Health, to a large gathering of National Federation of Building Trades Operatives - natural sound. [131], 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 representing Bevan. Aneurin Bevan was born on 15th November 1897 in Tredegar, Monmouthshire (now in Blaenau Gwent). We want the complete political extinction of the Tory Party, and twenty-five years of Labour Government. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. After the landslide Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Bevan was appointed minister of health, responsible for establishing the National Health Service. He was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children. Aneurin "Nye" Bevan PC (/narn bvn/; Welsh:[an.rn]; 15 November 1897 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, noted for tenure as Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's government in which he spearheaded the creation of the British National Health Service.
9 Necessary Facts about the NHS - Fact City - Aneurin Bevan, The Lancet, 1948. [68], Conservative opposition of the National Health Service scheme feared that the sudden access to free health care would be overrun. Along that road is endless retreat, and at the end of it a voluntary totalitarian State with ourselves erecting the barbed wire around. Bevan is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history. Bevan died in his sleep at 4.10pm on 6 July 1960, at the age of 62, at his home, Asheridge Farm, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. [10], 1919 saw the foundation of the Tredegar Labour Party and Bevan was selected as one of four Labour delegates to contest the West Ward in the Tredegar Urban District election. 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. photo by Elliott & Fry Wikimedia Commons. 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. Though described as an outstanding back-bench critic and an excellent debater, Bevan had long clashed with Attlee, even before being in his cabinet, because he thought he hadnt held the Tory party to account properly throughout World War Two. [103] Although unsuccessful in his bid, he did celebrate 25 years as the MP for Ebbw Vale. [98], Out of office, Bevan soon exacerbated the split within the Labour Party between the right and the left which weakened the party in the 1950s. [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". 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. They have offended against every principle of decency and there is only one way in which they can even begin to restore their tarnished reputation and that is to get out! With his activism and exuberance, his employer Tredegar Iron Company saw him as a troublesome person but he amazingly became a popular local speaker. "[55] At the beginning of the 1945 general election campaign, Bevan told his audience that his goal was to eliminate any opposition to the Labour programme: "We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders. Are we prepared to accept for ourselves the logic we are applying to Egypt? You can also find out more about the Bevan Society, our activities and programme of lectures. On the 'appointed day', 5 July 1948, Bevan's National Health Service Act 1946 came into force. [93] In 1952 Bevan published In Place of Fear,[94] "the most widely read socialist book" of the period, according to a highly critical right-wing Labour MP Anthony Crosland. 12. [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. Bevan had been a supporter of the Liberal Party in his youth, but was converted to socialism by the writings of Robert Blatchford in The Clarion and joined the Independent Labour Party. 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. 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 lost the seat in 1931, but regained it in 1932 before deciding against seeking re-election in 1934. [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. 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. 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)). 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. Lesser-known, perhaps, is Bevans own personal background. They have made us ashamed of the things of which formerly we were proud. Read more.
Aneurin Bevan | Biography & Facts | Britannica 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. The latter sale and purchase of goodwill often placed new entrants to the GP profession under large amounts of debt. Bevanism was a movement on the left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s led by Aneurin Bevan which also included Richard Crossman, Michael Foot and Barbara Castle. [12] Harold Macmillan ended his Prime Minister's Questions session in Parliament two days after Bevan's death by paying tribute to the opposition MP, describing him as "a great personality and a great national figure". This made him join the Independent Labour Party. After an overwhelming victory for the Labour Party in the 1945 General Election,Aneurin Bevanwas appointed Minister for Health also responsible for housing by Prime Minister Clement Attlee. We may all come from different walks of life but we have one common passion - learning through travel. Bevan's reputation as a hard-line socialist typically preceded him: Sir William Douglas, who served as Bevan's deputy in the Ministry of Health, had initially stated that he would "never work with a man like that". [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. [63] Having been a member of the Cottage Hospital Management Committee around 1928 and serving as chairman in 192930, Bevan had received an insight into the management of health services by local authorities, which proved to be a bedrock of his work in founding the National Health Service.[48]. Omissions? [123][124] An open-air service was held in his constituency of Ebbw Vale and was presided over by Donald Soper. [95] According to The Times Literary Supplement, the book was a "dithyramb with meanderings into the many side-tracks of Mr Bevan's private and public experience".