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. Bevan left school at 13 and began working in a local colliery. 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. 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. [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". He strongly criticised the National Government's rearmament plans in the face of the rise of Nazi Germany, saying to the Labour conference in autumn 1937: If the immediate international situation is used as an excuse to get us to drop our opposition to the rearmament programme of the Government, the next phase must be that we must desist from any industrial or political action that may disturb national unity in the face of Fascist aggression. The memorial stones of Aneurin Bevan in Tredegar, 2011. 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. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says, "Bevan alone kept the flag of left-wing socialism aloft throughoutwhich gave him a matchless authority amongst the constituency parties and in party conference". Welsh Greats - Aneurin Bevan - YouTube He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism. [96] In the opening page of the book, Bevan begins: "A young miner in a South Wales colliery, my concern was with the one practical question: Where does power lie in this particular state of Great Britain, and how can it be attained by the workers? Photo by No Swan So Fine Wikimedia Commons. His appointment came during the post-war housing shortage and the need for a radical change in the National Health Service. 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 2002, Bevan was voted the 45th greatest Briton of all time by a BBC public opinion poll. 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. It was around this time that he first "reject[ed] his chapel upbringing" and became an atheist. [127], Bevan's most significant legacy is the National Health Service. Bevanism was opposed by the Gaitskellites, moderate social democrats within the party. 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. Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan (1897-1960) is widely regarded as one of the most influential left-wing politicians in British history. [102], In March 1955, when Britain was preparing for Operation Grapple, the testing of its first hydrogen bomb, Bevan led a revolt of 57 Labour MPs and abstained on a key vote. 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". Later today he will be taken home to Wales. He died on 6 July 1960. However, the. 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. 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. [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. 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. [1], Both Bevan's parents were Nonconformists: his father was a Baptist and his mother a Methodist, although he became an atheist. 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. He began attending fortnightly meetings of the local Plebs' League where he studied, among other things, Marxism. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Aneurin's mother was also from Tredegar, but had English roots: her grandfather was from Hereford. [26] In January 1931, Bevan wrote a letter to the government on behalf of the Mosley group, raising concerns over its "failure to deal with unemployment". Bevan opposed the heavy censorship imposed on radio and newspapers and wartime Defence Regulation 18B, which gave the Home Secretary the powers to intern citizens. 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. 'Nye is asleep next door. He was no calculating machine. [31] In 1936 he joined the board of the new socialist newspaper Tribune. After Bevan left the Health ministry in 1951 he could never regain his level of success and feuded with fellow Labour leaders, using his strong political base as a weapon. Aneurin Bevan | Encyclopedia.com These numbers were reached by lowering the quality standards originally put forward by Bevan, with council houses featuring gardens being largely dropped in favour of tower blocks and flats. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. The manager of the colliery found an excuse to have him dismissed; however, with the support of the Miners Federation, Bevans case was judged to be one of victimisation and the company was forced to re-employ him. Aneurin Bevan Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com He had then joined the board of the socialist newspaper, the Tribune in 1936. There was a particularly large increase in marginal tax rates for wealthy business owners. Get out! Aneurin Bevan. 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. In 1925, Bevans father died of pneumoconiosis, a lung condition caused by long term inhalation of coal dust, but no compensation was paid. 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. 105 Facts About Aneurin Bevan | FactSnippet Who was Aneurin Bevan, when did he create the NHS and where - The Sun [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"). 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. Aneurin Bevan and the setting up of the NHS The National Health Service. 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? [54], He believed that the Second World War would give Britain the opportunity to create "a new society". 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 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. 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.

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