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Portrait of Aneurin Bevan. Photo by Howard Coster –

Top 10 Interesting facts about Aneurin Bevan

Aneurin Bevan was a reversed and famous Wales Labour politician who championed social justice, the right of workers, and democratic socialism.

In his political career, Bevan served as a minister of health in Clement Attlee鈥檚 Labor government of 1945, he was responsible for developing housing programs and for establishing the National Health Service.

Additionally, he was a brilliant spontaneous debater and a colorful public personality. Bevan was a great personal charm but was sometimes so rude to opponents that Churchill once called him a 鈥渕erchant of discourtesy鈥�.

His autobiography, In Place of Fear, appeared in 1952

1. Bevan鈥檚 early life

Aneurin Bevan. Photo by Elliott & Fry –

Aneurin Bevan was born on 15^th  November 1897 in Tredegar, Monmouthshire (now in Blaenau Gwent). He was born to David Bevan a coal miner and Phoebe nee Prothero a seamstress as one of their ten children.

2. Bevan was not academically sharp

Aneurin Bevan with his eye on the Ball. Photo by Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK –

Bevan was not good academically and was at a time repeated for a year in school. With less motivation for studies, he left school at age 13 to work at a local Ty- Trist Colliery.

He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners鈥� radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism.

3. Unprecedented industrial unrest marked Bevan鈥檚 youth

Aneurin Bevan. photo by Elliott & Fry –

Like many other students of Bevan鈥檚 class, his formal education ended when he was 14 years of age when he began to work in the mines. Soon, thereafter became an activist and initially, a supporter of syndicalism.

4. Aneurin Bevan鈥檚 early career and activism

The statue of Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960) by the late Robert Thomas on Queen Street Cardiff. Bevan was the sort of principled politician we seem to lack these days. Photo by Duncan from Leicestershire, UK –

Bevan shared a liberal ideology and was additionally a supporter of the Liberal party that had a change of ideology to socialism after reading Robert Blatchford鈥檚 in the Clarion. This made him join the Independent Labour Party.

At an early age of only 19 years, he became a trade union activist and headed the local miner鈥檚 lodge after joining the Tredegar branch of the South Wales Miner Federation.

5. Bevan鈥檚 employer saw him as troublesome, yet he grew into a popular local speaker

The Aneurin Bevan, former Cross Inn, September 2018, This is a photo of the listed building number. Photo by No Swan So Fine –

With his activism and exuberance, his employer Tredegar Iron Company saw him as a troublesome person but he amazingly became a popular local speaker.

With his posture, the manager of the colliery found reasons to lay him off but with support from the Miner鈥檚 Federation, he was re-employed by the company as his case was seen as victimization.

6. Bevan鈥檚 work in the mines was fruitful as he got sponsorship to study

A blue plaque was erected in 2015 by English Heritage at 23 Cliveden Place, Chelsea, London SW1W 8HD, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Photo by Spudgun67 –

His work in the mines paid off as he gained sponsorship from the South Wales Miners鈥� Federation to study at Central Labour College in 1919. He would be studying economics, history, and politics for the next two years while in that school.

7. His achievements in school were beyond measure

Aneurin Bevan. Photo by Geoff Charles –

Aneurin Bevan was a founding member of the Query Club in 1920 alongside his brother. This club was aimed at helping members in monetary terms in their times of need.

They collected monies among themselves was what they did to support a member who needed it each week. After his studies in 1921, he returned home without work as the Tredegar Iron & Coal Company refused to re-engage him.

In 1924, he found a job at the Bedwellty Colliery which would close down in just ten months.

8. Bevan鈥檚 Political life as a Parliamentarian began in 1929

Plaque, Aneurin Bevan memorial stones, Tredegar. Photo by Lesbardd –

Aneurin Bevan was selected as the Labour Party鈥檚 parliamentary candidate for Ebbw Vale for the 1929 General Election. This was after he had won a seat on the Monmouthshire County Council in 1928.

He won the seat easily and made it to parliament. In parliament, he became a fierce critic of those who did not represent the interest of the working force including members of his party. With his posture in parliament, he gained great support from his constituents.

Aneurin Bevan and other members were briefly suspended from the Labour Party in March 1939 as he advocated for a united socialist front of all parties of the left.

He was readmitted in November, the same year after he agreed to desist from involving himself in campaigns that opposed the declared policy of the Party.

He had then joined the board of the socialist newspaper, the Tribune in 1936. He was a strong critic of the arming policy the British government adopted during the rise of Hitler.

9. Bevan abruptly got appointed as a Minister of Government after the 1945 General Elections

Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester. Photo by University of Liverpool Faculty of Health & Life Sciences from Liverpool, United Kingdom –

After an overwhelming victory for the Labour Party in the 1945 General Election, Aneurin Bevan was appointed Minister for Health also responsible for housing by Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

His appointment came during the post-war housing shortage and the need for a radical change in the National Health Service. His appointment came with great displeasure from political opponents and members of his party.

His National Health Service policy met great disapproval from the British Medical Association.

10. Anenurin personal life

A statue of Aneurin Bevan in Cardiff. I. Photo by Kaihsu Tai on 2005-07-07 – 

In 1934, Aneurin Bevan married Socialist MP, Jennie Lee. Bevan passed on July 6, 1960, at age 62 in his Asheridge Farm home in Chesham, Buckinghamshire a year after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.

He was cremated at Gwent Crematorium, Croesyceiliog. He published the book In Place of Fear in 1952, which became the most read socialist book at the time.