A tribute to Tredegar.

Abstract

Two people were particularly influential in the creation of the British National Health Service (NHS). One was a politician and the other a doctor and writer. They were entirely different in their backgrounds, politics and temperaments, but their successes complemented each other. By an odd coincidence, they both had connexions with a small town in South Wales called Tredegar. So far as we know, they never met, although their experiences there turned out to be crucial in determining how the NHS took shape. Usually their stories are told separately. They were in fact intertwined. The better known of the two figures was Aneurin Bevan, the minister of health responsible for the introduction of the NHS in 1948 (see figure 1). Tredegar was his birthplace, and he left school there at 13 to work in the local mines. Later on, in adulthood, he emerged as one of the most significant left-wing politicians in Britain in the twentieth century.1 He was largely self-educated, and overcame a stammer to become a charismatic orator, considered by many as the equal of Winston Churchill with whom he frequently sparred. Bevan continues to be regarded around the world as a pioneer of democratic socialism, and has been voted first among 100 great Welsh heroes.