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Ernest Bevin was the Labour Party's Foreign Secretary after Labour's victory in the 1945 General Election.
Bevin was born in Winford, Somerset on March 9th, 1881. He had a poverty stricken upbringing and was orphaned aged six when his mother died. Bevin had little formal education and by the age of eleven was working as a labourer. He moved to Bristol where he gained employment as a van driver. In 1910, he became the secretary of the Bristol branch of the Dockers' Union and in 1914 was appointed its national organiser. In the 1918 general election, Bevin tried unsuccessfully, to win Bristol Central. He stood as a Labour candidate.
Bevin, along with Ben Tillett and Harry Gosling, founded the National Transport Workers' Federation to protect those employed in the trade. By 1921, 32 other unions had joined the NTWF to form the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) which quickly became the largest trade union in Britain. Bevin was elected the TGWU's general secretary - a post he held for nineteen years. Bevin was also a member of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) fro 1925 to 1940.
Bevin was not a hard-line socialist and did not fully support the General Strike of 1926. He played an important part in getting the TGWU to withdraw from the strike. In the 1931 General Election, Bevin stood as a Labour Party candidate at Gateshead in the north-west of England. He did not win the seat.
The 1930's saw the Labour Party without any real clout in Parliament as the National Government had so much support within the House. Bevin supported those who fought against General Franco in the Spanish Civil War and he encouraged people to join the International Brigade.
In Churchill's wartime coalition government, Bevin was appointed Minister of Labour in May 1940. In June 1940, Bevin won the seat of Wandsworth and so took his seat in the House of Commons. Bevin's primary task was to mobilise Britain's workforce so that it could be used as effectively as was possible. In this he succeeded. The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act effectively gave Bevin full control over Britain's labour force. He created 'Bevin Boys' - 48,000 men who were taken away from the draft for military service so that they could work down the mines.
Clement Atlee appointed Bevin Foreign Secretary after Labour's victory in the 1945 election. Bevin had no love of communism and believed that Stalin's Russia was a threat, despite the wartime alliance. He played an important part in the establishment of NATO and Britain's development of nuclear weapons. Bevin, as Foreign Secretary, also had to play a part in issues involving the Empire - such as the withdrawal from India. He also had to deal with the Middle East where Britain had a mandate in Palestine. He initially opposed moves for the creation of Israel but gave in to American pressure. Israel came into being in 1948 with United Nation's support.
Ernest Bevin retired from Atlee's government in March 1951 as he was in poor health. He died on April 14th, 1951.
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