Ernest Bevin

The Right Honourable Ernest Bevin
Bevin in 1942
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 9 March 1951 – 14 April 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Viscount Addison
Succeeded by	Richard Stokes
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 27 July 1945 – 9 March 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Anthony Eden
Succeeded by	Herbert Morrison
Minister of Labour and National Service
In office 13 May 1940 – 23 May 1945
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Ernest Brown
Succeeded by	Rab Butler
Member of Parliament for Woolwich East
In office 23 February 1950 – 14 April 1951
Preceded by	George Hicks
Succeeded by	Christopher Mayhew
Member of Parliament for Wandsworth Central
In office 22 June 1940 – 3 February 1950
Preceded by	Harry Nathan
Succeeded by	Richard Adams
General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union
In office 1 January 1922 – 27 July 1945
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Arthur Deakin
Personal details
Born	9 March 1881 Winsford, Somerset, England
Died	14 April 1951(1951-04-14) (aged 70) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Florence Anne Townley ​ ​ (m. 1906)​
Children	1

Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He cofounded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and served as Minister of Labour and National Service in the wartime coalition government. He succeeded in maximising the British labour supply for both the armed services and domestic industrial production with a minimum of strikes and disruption.

His most important role came as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government, 1945–1951. He secured Marshall Aid, strongly opposed communism and aided in the creation of NATO. Bevin was also instrumental to the founding of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret propaganda wing of the British Foreign Office, which specialised in disinformation, anti-communism and pro-colonial propaganda. Bevin's tenure also saw the end of British rule in India and the independence of India and East and West Pakistan (Bangladesh and Pakistan), as well as the end of the Mandate of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel. His biographer Alan Bullock said that Bevin "stands as the last of the line of foreign secretaries in the tradition created by Castlereagh, Canning and Palmerston in the first half of the 19th century".^[1]