Aneurin Bevan: The greatest Welsh hero

(1897 - 1960)

Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, pictured right as a young MP, was one of the most outstanding British political figures of the 20th century. He was the founder of the National Health Service, champion of the left, a first class orator and usually in the midst of fierce political controversy.

His political legacy and influence are still keenly felt today. In 2004, he topped an online poll as the greatest of a hundred Welsh Heroes, beating other national figures such as Owain Glyndwr into second place and pop icon Tom Jones into third.

"As the Minister of Health, Bevan was responsible for one of the most profound acts of modern social reform. By establishing the National Health Service and expanding the system of National Insurance created by David Lloyd George, he personally shaped the creation of the modern welfare state," said his citation in the poll by Culturenet Cymru.

Aneurin Bevan's words have inspired work by poet Patrick Jones, and a phrase from one of Bevan's speeches, 'This is My Truth Tell Me Yours' provided top British band, the Manic Street Preachers, with the title of their fifth album. Manics bassist Nicky Wire (Nicky Jones), like his brother Patrick Jones, was born in Tredegar and grew up in Blackwood.

Bevan was born at Number 32 Charles Street, on the 15th of November, 1897, one of ten children, seven of whom survived until adulthood. His nonconformist parents were David and Phoebe Bevan. As the family grew they moved to Number 7 in the same street. Both buildings have been demolished and Maes-y-Derwen residential home stands on the site of No. 32.

Bevan's school record was said to be so poor that his headmaster made him repeat a year. Although Bevan disliked school he had developed a love of reading and joined the Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library, said to be one of the best of its kind.

During his last months at school, Bevan worked part-time as a butcher's boy at Davis' shop in Commercial Street for 2s 6d a week. He left school four days before his 14th birthday to follow his father David down the mines and started work in the Ty Tryst (House of Sadness) Colliery. Tredegar Comprehensive School has been built near the former colliery site.

Bevan joined the South Wales Miners' Federation and was an active and militant trade unionist becoming head of the local Miners' Lodge at the age of 19. His employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company sacked him but were forced to re-employ him after he won a claim for victimisation.

He developed an eye condition called nystagmus caused by working in bad light down the pits, and had recurrences of it for the rest of his life. This meant that he was not called up for army service during World War I.

Bevan left Ty Tryst in 1919 after winning a scholarship to the Central Labour College in London, sponsored by the Federation. When he returned two years later, the company refused to employ him. He was employed intermittently and then became a paid union official in 1925. Bevan soon emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners during the General Strike which began on 3rd May 1926.

After the nine-day strike was called off, the miners remained locked-out for six months. Bevan as chairman of the Combine Lodge Executive, was largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and helped to form a Relief Committee that helped to raise money and provide food for the miners.

Bevan is second from the right on the back row.
In the centre is Walter Conway, for many years the Secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society.
Second from right in the front row
is Bevan's
brother Billy.

During the winter of 1920-21, Bevan, Walter Conway and a number of friends formed the Query Club, a radical debating society with a homemade badge shaped like a question mark. They paid a weekly subscription used to help any of their members who were in trouble.

One of their aims was to reduce the influence that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company had in the town by gaining power on the main committees, in miners' lodges, the Trades' Council, ward meetings of the Labour party and local authorities. He was a member of the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society in 1921, and a member of the Cottage Hospital committee around 1928 becoming the chairman for 1929/30.

In 1922 he was elected to represent the West ward on Tredegar Urban District Council and, as his biographer Michael Foot says, the future Minister of Health and Housing, who was to initiate the largest programme of council building backed by the largest subsidies in British history, first studied the problem in the back streets of his own town.

Housing in Tredegar, Bevan said, was appalling. 'People were living in conditions not fit for criminals. 'No doubt horses, especially racehorses, were housed much better than some of our citizens are being reared', he was quoted as saying in a report in the weekly Argus.

By 1926, the Bevan family had moved to Beaufort House in Commercial Street, Tredegar. In 1927 he thought about applying for a scholarship to Oxford but completed his education instead by correspondence course.

In 1928, he became a Monmouthshire County Councillor. He was selected as the Labour candidate for the Ebbw Vale constituency and won his seat in the Commons in the 1929 General Election.

The Aneuring Bevan Memorial Stones Pictured left are the
Aneurin Bevan Memorial Stones
at Bryn Serth, just off the A4047
at the top of Sirhowy Hill.
These standing stones mark
the spot where Bevan
held open-air meetings
to speak to his constituents.
The centre stone represents
Aneurin Bevan and the others point towards Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Tredegar, (the three major towns in his constituency).

Bevan gradually overcame the stammer that he had since he was a child by reciting poetry out aloud often during long walks over the local mountains with his friends, such as Bill Hopkins and later in the 1920s with his friend and then political agent Archie Lush.

On 24th October, 1934, Bevan married fellow socialist MP, Jennie Lee in 1934 with Archie Lush as his Best Man. The ceremony took place at the Holborn Registry Office, London. After living for a while in London the couple bought a cottage at Brimpton Common in Berkshire. They eventually moved to Cliveden Place, in London, and finally to Asheridge Farm in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.

In 1936 Bevan joined the board of the new socialist newspaper the Tribune. He was expelled from the Labour Party for a few months in 1939 for campaigning for a united socialist front of all parties of the left.

Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister, in a surprise move, appointed Bevan as Minister for Health and Housing after the Labour election victory of 1945 which made him the youngest member of the Cabinet. Following the 1942-44 Beveridge report, Bevan set about establishing the National Health Service (NHS) though he had to face opposition to the far-reaching proposals from the medical profession. This forced him to compromise and the structure of the service which emerged in 1948 reflected this.

In a survey conducted by the British Medical Association, 88% of doctors questioned in January 1948 were still opposed to the idea. Bevan listened to their complaints and was able to overcome their fears by allowing hospital consultants to treat private patients in NHS hospitals which let them keep a separate private income. By July 1948, 90% of doctors had joined the new NHS.

As Minister of Housing, "his brave and progressive policies" of decent, well-designed council housing estates replaced bomb-damaged districts in Britain's cities and towns. "Bevan's post-war housing reforms helped to reduce the mess of industrial and sometimes rural slums that had disfigured the country for too long," said the Tredegar Town Council's guide brought out as a Bevan centenary tribute in 1997.

As part of his Ministerial brief, Bevan was in charge of Local Government. Recalling his own personal experience, he introduced financial allowances for local councillors so easing the difficulties facing many working-class adults who had been unable to afford time away from work to represent their communities.

Despite his successes, Bevan was switched to a new job in 1951 as the Minister of Labour. He then resigned from the Government in protest at proposals to introduce charges for dental care and spectacles. He stood for the party leadership in 1955 after the resignation of Clement Attlee but was defeated by Hugh Gaitskell.

Bevan returned to the Shadow Front Bench in 1956 when he was appointed spokesman on colonial and later foreign affairs. By 1959 he was the Deputy Leader of the Labour party although by this time he was very ill with cancer. He died in 1960 at Chesham.

Where Nye Bevan is
commemorated in Wales

A number of memorials, some of which are pictured here, have been commissioned in Wales to honour Aneurin Bevan's life.

Following a long-running campaign, plans have been announced to build a new hospital at Ebbw Vale and name it in honour of Nye Bevan. Work on the new building, Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, is due to start at the end of 2007 and is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2009. It will be built on the former steel works site.

PORTRAIT: Tredegar General Hospital has an extension named the Aneurin Bevan Medical Centre and in the foyer hangs a portrait of Bevan by the noted photographer Karsh.

STANDING STONES: Perhaps one of the most famous memorials is the set of four Standing Stones at Bryn Serth on the top of Sirhowy Hill (see picture above) where he used to address his constituents.

STATUE: Among the other most famous tributes is the larger-than-life-sized bronze statue, above right, by the late Robert Thomas, which was unveiled in 1987 and stands at the Cardiff Castle end of Queen Street in Cardiff. In addition, a fibreglass statue made by Robert Thomas in 1969 has been on display at Sculpture Park at Margam Country Park, Port Talbot.

UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN: The Aneurin Bevan building, a £4 million expansion for the University's School of Care Sciences, was officially opened on April 22nd, 2005, by His Royal Highness the Earl of Wessex. The state of the art teaching facility provides training opportunities for healthcare industry professionals. An Aneurin Bevan sculpture was unveiled by First Minister Rhodri Morgan in April 2007 at the University of Glamorgan's Faculty of Health, Sport and Science. The artist is again the Welsh sculptor Robert Thomas.

DRAMA: Plays, dramatisations and workshops have been commissioned in his honour. The latest, a drama and documentary film project undertaken by The Prince's Trust Cymru, won a £25,000 grant in January 2005 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Through this grant, a group of more than 50 young people from Tredegar, aged between 14 and 18, are working on a 45-minute drama and 30-minute film project to be shown in 2006 about the lives of the people in the town, before, during and after the life of Aneurin Bevan. It will focus on the impact that one local politician had at national level and also on the impact that the NHS has had on young people

BRONZE: A bronze bust, left, by Peter Lambda, dating from 1945, stands in the Assembly Rooms in Bedwellty House which also featured the portrait shown at the top of this page.

HOME: Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has the Cartref Aneurin Bevan Residential Home for the elderly in Ashvale.

OFFICES: Tredegar Development Trust has its headquarters at Aneurin Bevan House in Castle Street, Tredegar.

Aneurin Bevan House is also the office of The Bevan Foundation, a registered charity and a politically independent think-tank named after Bevan and set up in 2001.

PANELS: A few yards down the road from Aneurin Bevan House in The Circle are four circular bronze panels, each measuring 1.2 metres, set in the pavement around the base of the Tredegar Clock.

These were commissioned by Tredegar Town Council through Artworks Wales and funded by the National Lottery to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service in 1998 and the 100th anniversary of Nye Bevan's birth in 1997.

The sculptor was Diane Gorvin and around the rim of each panel - one of which is pictured right - are quotations from his speeches while the relief work depicts Nye at various stages in his life:

1. As a miner's agent in 1918.
2. His marriage to Jennie Lee in 1934.
3. As the Minister of Health and Housing in 1945.
4. His life as an international statesman.

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		Aneurin Bevan: The greatest Welsh hero (1897 - 1960) Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, pictured right as a young MP, was one of the most outstanding British political figures of the 20th century. He was the founder of the National Health Service, champion of the left, a first class orator and usually in the midst of fierce political controversy. His political legacy and influence are still keenly felt today. In 2004, he topped an online poll as the greatest of a hundred Welsh Heroes, beating other national figures such as Owain Glyndwr into second place and pop icon Tom Jones into third. "As the Minister of Health, Bevan was responsible for one of the most profound acts of modern social reform. By establishing the National Health Service and expanding the system of National Insurance created by David Lloyd George, he personally shaped the creation of the modern welfare state," said his citation in the poll by Culturenet Cymru. Aneurin Bevan's words have inspired work by poet Patrick Jones, and a phrase from one of Bevan's speeches, 'This is My Truth Tell Me Yours' provided top British band, the Manic Street Preachers, with the title of their fifth album. Manics bassist Nicky Wire (Nicky Jones), like his brother Patrick Jones, was born in Tredegar and grew up in Blackwood. Bevan was born at Number 32 Charles Street, on the 15th of November, 1897, one of ten children, seven of whom survived until adulthood. His nonconformist parents were David and Phoebe Bevan. As the family grew they moved to Number 7 in the same street. Both buildings have been demolished and Maes-y-Derwen residential home stands on the site of No. 32. Bevan's school record was said to be so poor that his headmaster made him repeat a year. Although Bevan disliked school he had developed a love of reading and joined the Tredegar Workmen's Institute Library, said to be one of the best of its kind. During his last months at school, Bevan worked part-time as a butcher's boy at Davis' shop in Commercial Street for 2s 6d a week. He left school four days before his 14th birthday to follow his father David down the mines and started work in the Ty Tryst (House of Sadness) Colliery. Tredegar Comprehensive School has been built near the former colliery site. Bevan joined the South Wales Miners' Federation and was an active and militant trade unionist becoming head of the local Miners' Lodge at the age of 19. His employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company sacked him but were forced to re-employ him after he won a claim for victimisation. He developed an eye condition called nystagmus caused by working in bad light down the pits, and had recurrences of it for the rest of his life. This meant that he was not called up for army service during World War I. Bevan left Ty Tryst in 1919 after winning a scholarship to the Central Labour College in London, sponsored by the Federation. When he returned two years later, the company refused to employ him. He was employed intermittently and then became a paid union official in 1925. Bevan soon emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners during the General Strike which began on 3rd May 1926. After the nine-day strike was called off, the miners remained locked-out for six months. Bevan as chairman of the Combine Lodge Executive, was largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and helped to form a Relief Committee that helped to raise money and provide food for the miners. Bevan is second from the right on the back row. In the centre is Walter Conway, for many years the Secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society. Second from right in the front row is Bevan's brother Billy. During the winter of 1920-21, Bevan, Walter Conway and a number of friends formed the Query Club, a radical debating society with a homemade badge shaped like a question mark. They paid a weekly subscription used to help any of their members who were in trouble. One of their aims was to reduce the influence that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company had in the town by gaining power on the main committees, in miners' lodges, the Trades' Council, ward meetings of the Labour party and local authorities. He was a member of the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society in 1921, and a member of the Cottage Hospital committee around 1928 becoming the chairman for 1929/30. In 1922 he was elected to represent the West ward on Tredegar Urban District Council and, as his biographer Michael Foot says, the future Minister of Health and Housing, who was to initiate the largest programme of council building backed by the largest subsidies in British history, first studied the problem in the back streets of his own town. Housing in Tredegar, Bevan said, was appalling. 'People were living in conditions not fit for criminals. 'No doubt horses, especially racehorses, were housed much better than some of our citizens are being reared', he was quoted as saying in a report in the weekly Argus. By 1926, the Bevan family had moved to Beaufort House in Commercial Street, Tredegar. In 1927 he thought about applying for a scholarship to Oxford but completed his education instead by correspondence course. In 1928, he became a Monmouthshire County Councillor. He was selected as the Labour candidate for the Ebbw Vale constituency and won his seat in the Commons in the 1929 General Election. Pictured left are the Aneurin Bevan Memorial Stones at Bryn Serth, just off the A4047 at the top of Sirhowy Hill. These standing stones mark the spot where Bevan held open-air meetings to speak to his constituents. The centre stone represents Aneurin Bevan and the others point towards Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Tredegar, (the three major towns in his constituency). Bevan gradually overcame the stammer that he had since he was a child by reciting poetry out aloud often during long walks over the local mountains with his friends, such as Bill Hopkins and later in the 1920s with his friend and then political agent Archie Lush. On 24th October, 1934, Bevan married fellow socialist MP, Jennie Lee in 1934 with Archie Lush as his Best Man. The ceremony took place at the Holborn Registry Office, London. After living for a while in London the couple bought a cottage at Brimpton Common in Berkshire. They eventually moved to Cliveden Place, in London, and finally to Asheridge Farm in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. In 1936 Bevan joined the board of the new socialist newspaper the Tribune. He was expelled from the Labour Party for a few months in 1939 for campaigning for a united socialist front of all parties of the left. Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister, in a surprise move, appointed Bevan as Minister for Health and Housing after the Labour election victory of 1945 which made him the youngest member of the Cabinet. Following the 1942-44 Beveridge report, Bevan set about establishing the National Health Service (NHS) though he had to face opposition to the far-reaching proposals from the medical profession. This forced him to compromise and the structure of the service which emerged in 1948 reflected this. In a survey conducted by the British Medical Association, 88% of doctors questioned in January 1948 were still opposed to the idea. Bevan listened to their complaints and was able to overcome their fears by allowing hospital consultants to treat private patients in NHS hospitals which let them keep a separate private income. By July 1948, 90% of doctors had joined the new NHS. As Minister of Housing, "his brave and progressive policies" of decent, well-designed council housing estates replaced bomb-damaged districts in Britain's cities and towns. "Bevan's post-war housing reforms helped to reduce the mess of industrial and sometimes rural slums that had disfigured the country for too long," said the Tredegar Town Council's guide brought out as a Bevan centenary tribute in 1997. As part of his Ministerial brief, Bevan was in charge of Local Government. Recalling his own personal experience, he introduced financial allowances for local councillors so easing the difficulties facing many working-class adults who had been unable to afford time away from work to represent their communities. Despite his successes, Bevan was switched to a new job in 1951 as the Minister of Labour. He then resigned from the Government in protest at proposals to introduce charges for dental care and spectacles. He stood for the party leadership in 1955 after the resignation of Clement Attlee but was defeated by Hugh Gaitskell. Bevan returned to the Shadow Front Bench in 1956 when he was appointed spokesman on colonial and later foreign affairs. By 1959 he was the Deputy Leader of the Labour party although by this time he was very ill with cancer. He died in 1960 at Chesham. Where Nye Bevan is commemorated in Wales A number of memorials, some of which are pictured here, have been commissioned in Wales to honour Aneurin Bevan's life. Following a long-running campaign, plans have been announced to build a new hospital at Ebbw Vale and name it in honour of Nye Bevan. Work on the new building, Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, is due to start at the end of 2007 and is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2009. It will be built on the former steel works site. PORTRAIT: Tredegar General Hospital has an extension named the Aneurin Bevan Medical Centre and in the foyer hangs a portrait of Bevan by the noted photographer Karsh. STANDING STONES: Perhaps one of the most famous memorials is the set of four Standing Stones at Bryn Serth on the top of Sirhowy Hill (see picture above) where he used to address his constituents. STATUE: Among the other most famous tributes is the larger-than-life-sized bronze statue, above right, by the late Robert Thomas, which was unveiled in 1987 and stands at the Cardiff Castle end of Queen Street in Cardiff. In addition, a fibreglass statue made by Robert Thomas in 1969 has been on display at Sculpture Park at Margam Country Park, Port Talbot. UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN: The Aneurin Bevan building, a £4 million expansion for the University's School of Care Sciences, was officially opened on April 22nd, 2005, by His Royal Highness the Earl of Wessex. The state of the art teaching facility provides training opportunities for healthcare industry professionals. An Aneurin Bevan sculpture was unveiled by First Minister Rhodri Morgan in April 2007 at the University of Glamorgan's Faculty of Health, Sport and Science. The artist is again the Welsh sculptor Robert Thomas. DRAMA: Plays, dramatisations and workshops have been commissioned in his honour. The latest, a drama and documentary film project undertaken by The Prince's Trust Cymru, won a £25,000 grant in January 2005 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Through this grant, a group of more than 50 young people from Tredegar, aged between 14 and 18, are working on a 45-minute drama and 30-minute film project to be shown in 2006 about the lives of the people in the town, before, during and after the life of Aneurin Bevan. It will focus on the impact that one local politician had at national level and also on the impact that the NHS has had on young people BRONZE: A bronze bust, left, by Peter Lambda, dating from 1945, stands in the Assembly Rooms in Bedwellty House which also featured the portrait shown at the top of this page. HOME: Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has the Cartref Aneurin Bevan Residential Home for the elderly in Ashvale. OFFICES: Tredegar Development Trust has its headquarters at Aneurin Bevan House in Castle Street, Tredegar. Aneurin Bevan House is also the office of The Bevan Foundation, a registered charity and a politically independent think-tank named after Bevan and set up in 2001. PANELS: A few yards down the road from Aneurin Bevan House in The Circle are four circular bronze panels, each measuring 1.2 metres, set in the pavement around the base of the Tredegar Clock. These were commissioned by Tredegar Town Council through Artworks Wales and funded by the National Lottery to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Health Service in 1998 and the 100th anniversary of Nye Bevan's birth in 1997. The sculptor was Diane Gorvin and around the rim of each panel - one of which is pictured right - are quotations from his speeches while the relief work depicts Nye at various stages in his life: 1. As a miner's agent in 1918. 2. His marriage to Jennie Lee in 1934. 3. As the Minister of Health and Housing in 1945. 4. His life as an international statesman.

Aneurin Bevan: The greatest Welsh hero

Where Nye Bevan is commemorated in Wales

Where Nye Bevan is
commemorated in Wales