Aneurin Bevan

Aneurin Bevan (born November 15, 1897, Tredegar, Monmouthshire [now in Blaenau Gwent], Wales—died July 6, 1960, Chesham, Buckinghamshire) was a controversial figure in post-World War II British politics and one of the finest orators of the time. To achieve mastery as a speaker, he had first to overcome a speech impediment. He was the architect of the National Health Service and leader of the left-wing (Bevanite) group of the Labour Party.

The son of a miner, Bevan became a collier’s helper at age 13 but had to leave the mines in a few years because of eye disease. After two years at Central Labour College, London, he entered politics and in 1929 was elected to the House of Commons as Labour member from Ebbw Vale. Throughout World War II he was a vigorous critic of Winston Churchill’s coalition government but was equally critical of his own party. From 1940 to 1945 he was editor of the independent Socialist Tribune.

As minister of health in Clement Attlee’s Labour government of 1945, he was responsible for developing housing programs and for establishing the National Health Service. 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. For the next few years Bevan was the centre of controversy within the Labour Party and involuntarily gave his name to the party’s radical wing.

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 party’s policies and became shadow foreign secretary. His autobiography, In Place of Fear, appeared in 1952.