Aneurin Bevan(1897-1960)

British socialist politician. In the 1945 Labour Government he was named Minister of Health and developed the National Health Service, providing free medical care for all in British society. He resigned in 1951 in protest at the introduction of charges for some health care. Branded a left-wing extremist in his lifetime, his memory is now venerated by the British Labour Party which, however, has done nothing to adopt his policies or point of view.

On being unemployed in the Great Depression: No amount of cajolery ... can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of first-class people to semi-starvation.