Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.42.2
Object Name
photograph
Place
Ebbw Vale, Tredegar, Wales, Blackpool
People
Labour Party, Aneurin Bevan
Events
Labour Party Conference 1959
Description
A black and white photograph of the politician Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan giving a speech. He is standing, wearing a dark suit, flanked by two seated men. There is a row of women sat behind him listening to the speech.
This photograph was taken of Aneurin Bevan giving a speech at the 1959 Labour Party conference in Blackpool, during which he urged the party not to abandon their socialist principles, despite multiple Conservative party victories. During the passionate speech he told delegates to hold fast, as "the tides of history are flowing in our direction" and that they must not abandon "the great labour movement, the mother and father of modern democracy and of modern socialism".
Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan was a Welsh miner and activist member of the South Wales Miners' Federation since he left school at 14, and a leading figure during the 1926 General Strike. Bevan's union organising, and whistle blowing about unsafe conditions, had him blacklisted by local mines, meaning he struggled to get work. A deeply committed socialist, Bevan was active in Labour Party politics, and was elected as the MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929, though he alienated himself from his party by criticising Ramsey MacDonald's Labour government's economic responses to the Great Depression and the impact they would have on working class people. He vocally criticised the wartime government led by Winston Churchill, making him unpopular with sections of the public as he was viewed as unpatriotic. Bevan had a life-long stammer which he worked around by using synonyms for words he found difficult - a technique which made him a gifted orator.
Following the Second World War, in Clement Attlee's Labour government, he was made the Minister of Health, a department which also covered housing at the time. Bevan's policies while in this post were deeply influential on the foundation of the 'welfare state'. As well as building large amounts of social housing, Bevan's most notable achievement was the founding of the National Health Service. Founded on July 5th 1948, the NHS would provide free and equal treatment at the point of access to all people across the UK, replacing the uneven previously existing system which had led to low life expectancies for the working class people who couldn't afford a doctor, or who lived in areas with limited access to doctors who prioritised working in wealthy urban areas. Bevan's father's death from pneumoconiosis (a lung illness which affects many mine workers who have inhaled coal dust) and lack of ability to afford good medical help deeply impacted Bevan's politics and may have contributed to his
eventual commitment to founding the NHS.
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