Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin (1881-1951), British labor leader and statesman, born in Winsford, England. About 1909, after working at a number of manual trades, he became a labor organizer. 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 labor 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.