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Ernest Bevin was born in Winsford, Somerset on 7 March 1881. His birthplace, bearing a plaque, is across from the post office/stores.
The son of poor parents, he was an orphan by the age of six. After a couple of years of formal education, Bevin became a farm labourer. At eighteen he moved to Bristol where he found work as a van driver. He became interested in Non-conformist religion and for a while was a Baptist lay preacher. Bevin joined the Dockers' Union and by the age of 30 was one of its paid officials. Bevin, a member of the Labour Party, was unsuccessful in his attempt to become the MP for Bristol Central in the 1918 General Election.
In 1920 he gained a nationwide reputation by making a speech before the Transport Workers' Court of Inquiry that resulted in a standard minimum wage for British dockworkers. In 1921 he organized the Transport and General Workers' Union, a national merger of 32 smaller unions; he served as general secretary of this group until 1940. In 1926 he helped organize the British general strike, which effectively paralyzed England for ten days. A prominent member of the Labour Party, in 1940, he joined the coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Winston Churchill as minister of labour and national service; he was in charge of the mobilization of human and national resources throughout World War II (1939-1945).
In 1945 Bevin became secretary of state for foreign affairs in the Labour cabinet of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. He was a strong supporter of the United States in the beginning of the Cold War, helping to organize the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and 1949 and participating in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His foreign policy concerning the Middle East was controversial, however, and was strongly opposed by Jewish leaders. At the time of his death he held the post of lord privy seal. He died in 1951.
The earliest known portrait of the Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin at the age of three. He is the chubby boy sitting in the front centre.
Source Picture Post November 30th 1946
The house where Ernest Bevin was born in 1881
The house where Ernest Bevin was born taken in 2006
The plaque on the house 'Ernest Bevin Statesman was born here 7th March 1881
Contributed by: Lucy
Pinknall
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