William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
politician who was a
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 1942 report ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' (known as the
Beveridge Report
The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
) served as the basis for the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
put in place by the
Labour government elected in 1945.
He built his career as an expert on
unemployment insurance. He served on the Board of Trade as Director of the newly created
labour exchange
An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency.
Public employment agencies
One ...
s, and later as Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Food. He was Director of the
London School of Economics and Political Science from 1919 until 1937, when he was elected Master of
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...
.
Beveridge published widely on unemployment and
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
, his most notable works being: ''Unemployment: A Problem of Industry'' (1909), ''Planning Under Socialism'' (1936), ''
Full Employment in a Free Society
''Full Employment in a Free Society'' (1944) is a book by William Beveridge, author of the Beveridge Report. It was first published in the UK by Allen & Unwin.
Overview
The book begins with the thesis that because individual employers are not cap ...
'' (1944), ''Pillars of Security'' (1943), ''Power and Influence'' (1953) and ''A Defence of Free Learning'' (1959). He was elected in a
1944 by-election as a Liberal MP (for
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
); following his defeat in the
1945 general election
The following elections occurred in the year 1945.
Africa
* 1945 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1945 Indian general election
Australia
* 1945 Fremantle by-election
Europe
* 1945 Albanian parliamentary election
* 1945 Bulgaria ...
, he was elevated to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
where he served as the leader of the Liberal peers.
Early life and education
![William Beveridge at Balliol 1898, cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/William_Beveridge_at_Balliol_1898%2C_cropped.jpg)
Beveridge, the eldest son of
Henry Beveridge, an
Indian Civil Service officer and District Judge, and scholar
Annette Ackroyd, was born in Rangpur,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(now
Rangpur,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
), on 5 March 1879.
Beveridge's mother had, with
Elizabeth Malleson
Elizabeth Malleson (''née'' Whitehead; 1828–1916) was an English educationalist, suffragist and activist for women's education and rural nursing.
Life
Elizabeth Whitehead was born into a Unitarian family in Chelsea, Malleson was the first chil ...
, founded the Working Women's College in
Queen Square, London in 1864. She met and married Henry Beveridge in Calcutta where she had gone in 1873 to open a school for Indian girls. William Beveridge was educated at
Charterhouse, a leading
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
near the market town of
Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...
in Surrey, followed by
Balliol College at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, where he studied Mathematics and Classics, obtaining a
first class degree in both. He later studied law.
[Jose Harris, ''William Beveridge: a biography'' (1997) pp 43-78.]
While Beveridge's mother had been a member of the
Stourbridge Unitarian community,
his father was an early
humanist and
positivist activist and "an ardent disciple" of the French philosopher
Auguste Comte
Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte (; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense ...
. Comte's ideas of a secular
religion of humanity were a prominent influence in the household and would exert a lasting influence on Beveridge's thinking. Beveridge himself became a "
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
", in his words.
[Jose Harris, ''William Beveridge: a biography'' (1997) pp 1, 323.]
Life and career
![Sir W](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Sir_W.H._Beveridge%2C_head-and-shoulders_portrait%2C_facing_left.jpg)
After leaving university, Beveridge initially became a lawyer. He became interested in the
social services
Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...
and wrote about the subject for the ''
Morning Post'' newspaper. His interest in the causes of unemployment began in 1903 when he worked at
Toynbee Hall
Toynbee Hall is a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London and elsewhere. Established in 1884, it is based in Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and was the first university-affiliat ...
, a
settlement house in London. There he worked closely with
Sidney Webb
Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like Geo ...
and
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...
and was influenced by their theories of social reform, becoming active in promoting
old age pensions,
free school meals, and campaigning for a national system of
labour exchange
An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency.
Public employment agencies
One ...
s.
In 1908, now considered to be Britain's leading authority on
unemployment insurance, he was introduced by Beatrice Webb to
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, who had recently been promoted to the
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
as
President of the Board of Trade
The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. This is a committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th centu ...
. Churchill invited Beveridge to join the Board of Trade, and he organised the implementation of the national system of labour exchanges and
National Insurance
National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...
to combat unemployment and poverty. During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he was involved in mobilising and controlling manpower. After the war, he was knighted and made permanent secretary to the
Ministry of Food.
In 1919 he left the civil service to become director of the
London School of Economics and Political Science. Over the next few years he served on several commissions and committees on
social policy
Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society.
Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...
. He was so highly influenced by the
Fabian Society socialists – in particular by
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...
, with whom he worked on the 1909 ''Poor Laws'' report – that he could be considered one of their number. He published academic economic works including his early work on unemployment (1909). The Fabians made him a director of the LSE in 1919, a post he retained until 1937. During his time as Director, he jousted with
Edwin Cannan
Edwin Cannan (3 February 1861, Funchal, Madeira – 8 April 1935, Bournemouth), the son of David Cannan and artist Jane Cannan, was a British economist and historian of economic thought. He was a professor at the London School of Economics from 1 ...
and
Lionel Robbins
Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British economist, and prominent member of the economics department at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed def ...
, who were trying to steer the LSE away from its Fabian roots. From 1929 he led the
International scientific committee on price history, contributing a large historical study, ''Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century'' (1939).
In 1933 he helped set up the
Academic Assistance Council
The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) is a charitable British organisation dedicated to assisting academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to remain in their home countries despite the serious risks they face ...
. This helped prominent academics who had been dismissed from their posts on grounds of race, religion or political position to escape
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
persecution. In 1937 Beveridge was appointed
Master of
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...
.
Wartime work
![William Beveridge D 17134](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/William_Beveridge_D_17134.jpg)
Three years later,
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–19 ...
, Minister of Labour in the wartime National government, invited Beveridge to take charge of the Welfare department of his Ministry. Beveridge refused, but declared an interest in organising British manpower in wartime (Beveridge had come to favour a strong system of centralised planning). Bevin was reluctant to let Beveridge have his way but did commission him to work on a relatively unimportant manpower survey from June 1940 and so Beveridge became a temporary civil servant. Neither Bevin nor the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry
Sir Thomas Phillips liked working with Beveridge as both found him conceited.
[Paul Addison, ''The Road to 1945'', Jonathan Cape, 1975, p. 117.]
His work on manpower culminated in his chairmanship of the Committee on Skilled Men in the Services which reported to the War Cabinet in August and October 1941. Two recommendations of the committee were implemented: Army recruits were enlisted for their first six weeks into the
General Service Corps, so that their subsequent posting could take account of their skills and the Army's needs; and the
Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers".
History
Prior to REME's for ...
was created.
Report on social insurance and views on full employment
An opportunity for Bevin to ease Beveridge out presented itself in May 1941 when Minister of Health
Ernest Brown announced the formation of a committee of officials to survey existing social insurance and allied services, and to make recommendations. Although Brown had made the announcement, the inquiry had largely been urged by Minister without Portfolio
Arthur Greenwood, and Bevin suggested to Greenwood making Beveridge chairman of the committee. Beveridge, at first uninterested and seeing the committee as a distraction from his work on manpower, accepted only reluctantly.
Paul Addison
Paul Addison (3 May 1943 – 21 January 2020) was a British historian known for his research on the political history of Britain during the Second World War and the post-war period. Addison was part of the first generation of academic historia ...
, "The Road to 1945", Jonathan Cape, 1975, p. 169.
The report to Parliament on ''
Social Insurance and Allied Services
The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
'' was published in November 1942. It proposed that all people of
working age should pay a weekly
national insurance
National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...
contribution. In return, benefits would be paid to people who were sick, unemployed, retired or widowed. Beveridge argued that this system would provide a minimum standard of living "below which no one should be allowed to fall". It recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the "five giants on the road of reconstruction" of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. Beveridge included as one of three fundamental assumptions the fact that there would be a National Health Service of some sort, a policy already being worked on in the Ministry of Health.
[Paul Addison, "The Road to 1945", Jonathan Cape, 1975, pp. 169–70.]
Beveridge's arguments were widely accepted. He appealed to conservatives and other sceptics by arguing that welfare institutions would increase the competitiveness of British industry in the post-war period, not only by shifting labour costs like healthcare and pensions out of
corporate ledgers and onto the public account but also by producing healthier, wealthier and thus more motivated and productive workers who would also serve as a great source of demand for British goods.
Beveridge saw
full employment
Full employment is a situation in which there is no cyclical or unemployment#Cyclical unemployment, deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely Structu ...
(defined as unemployment of no more than 3%) as the pivot of the social welfare programme he expressed in the 1942 report. ''
Full Employment in a Free Society
''Full Employment in a Free Society'' (1944) is a book by William Beveridge, author of the Beveridge Report. It was first published in the UK by Allen & Unwin.
Overview
The book begins with the thesis that because individual employers are not cap ...
'', written in 1944 expressed the view that it was "absurd" to "look to individual employers for maintenance of demand and full employment." These things must be "undertaken by the State under the supervision and pressure of democracy." Measures for achieving full-employment might include
Keynesian-style fiscal regulation, direct control of manpower, and state control of the means of production. The impetus behind Beveridge's thinking was
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
, and the creation of an ideal new society after the war. He believed that the discovery of objective socio-economic laws could solve the problems of society.
Later career
![The Home Front in Britain 1939-1945 TR1625](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/The_Home_Front_in_Britain_1939-1945_TR1625.jpg)
Later in 1944, Beveridge, who had recently joined the
Liberal Party, was elected to the
House of Commons in a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
to succeed
George Charles Grey, who had died on the battlefield in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, France, on the first day of
Operation Bluecoat
Operation Bluecoat was a British offensive in the Battle of Normandy, from 30 July until 7 August 1944, during the Second World War. The geographical objectives of the attack, undertaken by VIII Corps and XXX Corps of the British Second Army (L ...
on 30 July 1944. Beveridge briefly served as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for the constituency of
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
, during which time he was prominent in the
Radical Action
Radical Action was a political group within the British Liberal Party. It advocated for Liberal candidates to stand in elections despite the war-time electoral pact.
The organisation was founded in 1941 as the Liberal Action Group. It included som ...
group, which called for the party to withdraw from the
war-time electoral pact and adopt more radical policies. However, he lost his seat at the
1945 general election
The following elections occurred in the year 1945.
Africa
* 1945 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1945 Indian general election
Australia
* 1945 Fremantle by-election
Europe
* 1945 Albanian parliamentary election
* 1945 Bulgaria ...
, when he was defeated by the
Conservative candidate,
Robert Thorp, by a majority of 1,962 votes.
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
and the
Labour Party defeated
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
's
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
in that
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
and the new Labour Government began the process of implementing Beveridge's proposals that provided the basis of the modern Welfare State. Attlee announced he would introduce the Welfare State outlined in the 1942 Beveridge Report. This included the establishment of a
National Health Service in 1948 with taxpayer funded medical treatment for all. A national system of benefits was also introduced to provide "social security" so that the population would be protected from the "cradle to the grave". The new system was partly built upon the
National Insurance scheme set up by then-
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
and future
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
in 1911.
In 1946, Beveridge was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Beveridge, of Tuggal in the County of
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
, and eventually became leader of the Liberal Party in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. He was the author of ''Power and Influence'' (1953). He was the President of the charity Attend (then the National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends) from 1952 to 1962.
Eugenics
Beveridge was a member of the
Eugenics Society
Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...
, which promoted the study of methods to 'improve' the human race by
controlling reproduction. In 1909, he proposed that men who could not work should be supported by the state "but with complete and permanent loss of all citizen rights – including not only the franchise but civil freedom and fatherhood." Whilst director of the London School of Economics, Beveridge attempted to create a Department of Social Biology. Though never fully established,
Lancelot Hogben
Lancelot Thomas Hogben FRS FRSE (9 December 1895 – 22 August 1975) was a British experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He developed the African clawed frog ''(Xenopus laevis)'' as a model organism for biological research in his ear ...
, a fierce anti-eugenicist, was named its chair. Former LSE director
John Ashworth speculated that discord between those in favour and those against the serious study of eugenics led to Beveridge's departure from the school in 1937.
In the 1940s, Beveridge credited the Eugenics Society with promoting the
children's allowance, which was incorporated into his 1942 report. However, whilst he held views in support of eugenics, he did not believe the report had any overall "eugenic value". Professor
Danny Dorling
Danny Dorling (born 16 January 1968) is a British social geographer. Since 2013, he has been Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography of the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford.
He is also a visiting professor ...
said that "there is not even the faintest hint" of eugenic thought in the report.
Dennis Sewell states that "On the day the House of Commons met to debate the Beveridge Report in 1943, its author slipped out of the gallery early in the evening to address a meeting of the Eugenics Society at the Mansion House. ... His report he was keen to reassure them, was eugenic in intent and would prove so in effect. ... The idea of child allowances had been developed within the society with the twin aims of encouraging the educated professional classes to have more children than they currently did and, at the same time, to limit the number of children born to poor households. For both effects to be properly stimulated, the allowance needed to be graded: middle-class parents receiving more generous payments than working-class parents. ... The Home Secretary had that very day signalled that the government planned a flat rate of child allowance. But Beveridge, alluding to the problem of an overall declining birth rate, argued that even the flat rate would be eugenic. Nevertheless, he held out hope for the purists." 'Sir William made it clear that it was in his view not only possible but desirable that graded family allowance schemes, applicable to families in the higher income brackets, be administered concurrently with his flat rate scheme,' reported the ''
Eugenics Review
The ''Journal of Biosocial Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the intersection of biology and sociology. It was the continuation of ''The Eugenics Review'', published by the Galton Institute from 1909 till 1968. It ...
''.
Personal life
![The graves of Lord and Lady Beveridge, 1992](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/The_graves_of_Lord_and_Lady_Beveridge%2C_1992.jpg)
Beveridge married the mathematician
Janet Philip, daughter of William Philip and widow of David Mair, in 1942. They had worked together in the civil service and at LSE, and she was instrumental in the drafting and publicising of the Beveridge Report.
He died at his home on 16 March 1963, aged 84,
and was buried in
Thockrington
Thockrington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Bavington, in Northumberland, England. The village lies about north of Hexham. In 1951 the parish had a population of 18.
Governance
Thockrington is in the parliamentary ...
churchyard, on the Northumbrian moors. His barony became extinct upon his death. His last words were "I have a thousand things to do".
Commemoration
Beveridge Street in the
Christchurch Central City
Christchurch Central City or Christchurch City Centre is the geographical centre and the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is defined as the area within the Four Avenues (Bealey Avenue, Fitzgerald Avenue, Moorhouse Avenue and Deans Avenue ...
was named for William Beveridge. It was one of 120 streets that were renamed in 1948 by
Peter Fraser
Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand Lab ...
's
Labour Government of New Zealand.
In November 2018,
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
unveiled a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
commemorating Beveridge at 27 Bedford Gardens in
Campden Hill, London W8 7EF where he lived from 1914 until 1921.
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...
's society for students studying and tutors involved in the study of
Philosophy, Politics and Economics was recently renamed the Beveridge Society in his honour.
Works
* ''Unemployment: A problem of industry'', 1909
online(
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
)
* 'Wages in the Winchester Manors', ''Economic History Review'', Vol. VII, 1936–37.
*
Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century', 1939.
* ''
Social Insurance and Allied Services
The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
'', 1942. (The
Beveridge Report
The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
)
* ''The Pillars of Security and Other War-Time Essays and Addresses'', 1943, republished 2014.
* ''
Full Employment in a Free Society
''Full Employment in a Free Society'' (1944) is a book by William Beveridge, author of the Beveridge Report. It was first published in the UK by Allen & Unwin.
Overview
The book begins with the thesis that because individual employers are not cap ...
'', 1944.
* ''The Economics of Full Employment'', 1944.
* ''Why I am a Liberal'', 1945.
* ''The Price of Peace'', 1945.
* ''Power and Influence'', 1953.
* "''India Called Them''," George Allen & Unwin, 1947
* ''Plan for Britain: A Collection of Essays prepared for the Fabian Society'' by G. D. H. Cole, Aneurin Bevan, Jim Griffiths, L. F. Easterbrook, Sir William Beveridge, and Harold J. Laski (Not illustrated with 127 text pages).
[Detail taken from ''Plan for Britain'' published by George Routledge with a date of 1943 and no ISBN]
* 'Westminster Wages in the Manorial Era', ''Economic History Review'', 2nd Series, Vol. VIII, 1955.
See also
*
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, noted for tenure as Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's government in which he spearheaded the creation of the British National Health ...
, Clement Attlee's Health Minister
*
Beveridge curve – the relationship between unemployment and the job vacancy rate
*
List of liberal theorists
Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and ...
*
List of British university chancellors and vice-chancellors
This following is a current list of the chancellors, vice-chancellors and visitors of universities in the United Kingdom. In most cases, the chancellor is a ceremonial head, while the vice-chancellor is chief academic officer and chief executiv ...
*
List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
*
List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of London
Resources
* Jose Harris, ''William Beveridge: A Biography,''
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1997. .
* Julien Demade, ''Produire un fait scientifique. Beveridge et le Comité international d'histoire des prix'', Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2018. .
William Beveridge's archives are held at the London School of Economics.Photographs of William Beveridge held by LSE Archives*
Donald Markwell, ''John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace'', Oxford University Press, 2006.
References
Further reading
* Addison, Paul. ''The Road To 1945: British Politics and the Second World War'' (1977) pp 211–28.
* Harris, Jose. ''William Beveridge: a biography'' (1997
online
* Hills, John et al. eds. ''Beveridge and Social Security: an International Retrospective'' (1994)
* Robertson, David Brian. "Policy entrepreneurs and policy divergence: John R. Commons and William Beveridge." ''Social Service Review'' 62.3 (1988): 504–531.
* Sugita, Yoneyuki. "The Beveridge Report and Japan." ''Social work in public health'' 29.2 (2014): 148–161.
* Whiteside, Noel. "The Beveridge Report and its implementation: A revolutionary project?." ''Histoire@ Politique'' 3 (2014): 24–37
online
Primary sources
* Williams, Ioan, and Karel Williams, eds. ''A Beveridge Reader'' (2014); (Works of William H. Beveridge).
External links
*
Sir William Beveridge Foundation* Spartacus Educational o
an
Full text of the reportBBC informationBBC Radio 4, Great Lives – Downloadable 30 minute discussion of William BeveridgeCatalogue of William Beveridge's papers at the London School of Economics (LSE Archives)Cataloguing the Beveridge papers at LSE Archives
*
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