Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. 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. His wage of 5 a week was paid by the members of the local Miners' Lodge. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [88][89] Two other ministers, John Freeman and Harold Wilson, resigned at the same time. However, Attlee commented that Bevan was "starting with me with a clean sheet" following his appointment. Photo by Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK Wikimedia Commons. Use the tabs aboveto learn about Nye Bevans life, work and ideas, as well as the history of the NHS. Despite Bevan's criticism of the new party leader, Gaitskell decided to appoint him as Shadow Colonial Secretary,[109] and then Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1956. [91], Later the same year, the Labour Party were defeated at the general election. The Tredegar Query Club by friends including Aneurin Bevan and Walter Conway. The same year, Labour were defeated in the General Election. Aneurin Bevan and the setting up of the NHS The National Health Service. 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. 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. With the support of the Miners' Federation, the case was judged as one of victimisation and the company was forced to re-employ him. 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. [54], He believed that the Second World War would give Britain the opportunity to create "a new society". In 1934 he married another Labour MP, Jennie Lee. Aneurin Bevan was born on November 15, 1897, in Tredegar, Monmouthshire in the South Wales Valleys. The NHS was funded by a slight increase in taxes, and government income tax was increased for the welfare state expenses. He was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children. 2. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. He won the seat easily and made it to parliament. 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. [40] Bevan now called unsuccessfully for a Popular Front against fascism under the leadership of the Labour Party, including even anti-fascist Tories. Shortly afterwards he resigned from the government in protest at the introduction of prescription charges for dental care and spectacles. Read more. In 1924, he found a job at the Bedwellty Colliery which would close down in just ten months. 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. photo by Elliott & Fry Wikimedia Commons. [120], After a lengthy period in hospital, on 14 February 1960 Bevan returned home and announced he would not be returning to politics in the near future, so as to be able to recuperate and plan an extended holiday. 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". [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. 3. [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. [132] In 2002, Bevan was voted as the 45th greatest Briton of all time by the BBC public opinion poll, 100 Greatest Britons. [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. With less motivation for studies, he left school at age 13 to work at a local Ty- Trist Colliery. BBC Wales documentary, originally aired December 18th 2012.Aneurin Bevan (pronounced /narn/; Welsh: [an.rin]; 15 November 1897 - 6 July 1960), often k. [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". If we accept the contention that the common enemy is Hitler and not the British capitalist class, then certainly Churchill is right. We enter this campaign at this general election, not merely to get rid of the Tory majority. By 19 he was active in trade unionism and was head of his local miners' lodge . [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]. 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. On the 'appointed day', 5 July 1948, Bevan's National Health Service Act 1946 came into force. Bevan's key speeches in the legislative arena are to be found in: For the local health board headquartered in Caerleon, Wales, see, Minister of Labour and National Service (1951). This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. [57][58] These reforms were achieved in the face of great financial difficulty following the war. There was an outpouring of national mourning that followed his death, while the Daily Herald reported that some MPs were seen to be crying in Parliament. Dr James Calvert, medical director for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, said it was important to remember the report was made during the pandemic, "which has significantly disrupted the . Aneurin Bevan was born on 15 th November 1897 in Tredegar, Monmouthshire (now in Blaenau Gwent). 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. He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism. He went on to serve as shadow foreign secretary from 1956-59 and deputy leader of the Labour party from 1959-60. An estimated 125,000 nurses and 5,000 consultants were available to care for hospital patients. Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan (1897-1960) is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history. [10] The Query club started in 1920 or 1921 and they met in Tredegar. 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. Happy travels! He was the sixth of ten children born to Phoebe and David Bevan, of whom only eight survived infancy and only six to adulthood. Contact, Facts are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. He first became an MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929. [68], Conservative opposition of the National Health Service scheme feared that the sudden access to free health care would be overrun. "[83], Bevan was instead appointed Minister of Labour in January 1951 in place of George Isaacs. 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 was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children. It was around this time that he first "reject[ed] his chapel upbringing" and became an atheist. He wanted the war to be not just a fight against fascism but a war for socialism. [64] The scheme was achieved having overcome political opposition from both the Conservative Party and from within his own party. 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 . I. Are we prepared to accept for ourselves the logic we are applying to Egypt? [84][85] During his tenure, he helped to secure a deal for railwaymen which provided them with a significant pay increase. After his studies in 1921, he returned home without work as the Tredegar Iron & Coal Company refused to re-engage him. Aneurin Bevan, byname Nye Bevan, (born November 15, 1897, Tredegar, Monmouthshire [now in Blaenau Gwent], Walesdied July 6, 1960, Chesham, Buckinghamshire), controversial figure in post-World War II British politics and one of the finest orators of the time. [32][33] Bevan and another expelled MP, George Strauss, appealed against the decision. He was not a cold-blooded rationalist. Bevan followed his advice, often practising his speeches to his friends to perfect his speech and wording, and remarked that Conway's words were the "best advice I ever had". [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". He was the son of coal miner David Bevan and Phoebe (ne Prothero), a seamstress. With his posture in parliament, he gained great support from his constituents. 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! 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. Tomorrow he will be cremated in keeping with his known views. During World War Two, Bevan was one of the leaders of the left in the House of Commons. We want the complete political extinction of the Tory Party, and twenty-five years of Labour Government. "Oratory in Political Life,", This page was last edited on 14 April 2023, at 03:25. In January 1951, Bevan became Minister for Labour but resigned in protest just three months later after Hugh Gaitskell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed an introduction of prescription charges for dental care and spectacles in order to save a potential 25 million to meet the financial demands of the Korean War. His contribution to the Welfare State has been immense. ", "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.
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