Editing Ernest Bevin

{{short description|British trade union leader, politician, and statesman (1881–1951)}}
{{About|the statesman and politician|the school|Ernest Bevin Academy}}
{{distinguish|Aneurin Bevan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Ernest Bevin
| image               = Ernest Bevin MP.jpg
| caption             =  Bevin in 1942
| office              = [[Lord Privy Seal|Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal]]
| term_start          = 9 March 1951
| term_end            = 14 April 1951
| primeminister       = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor         = [[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|The Viscount Addison]]
| successor           = [[Richard Stokes (politician)|Richard Stokes]]
| office1             = [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start1         = 27 July 1945
| term_end1           = 9 March 1951
| primeminister1      = [[Clement Attlee]]
| predecessor1        = [[Anthony Eden]]
| successor1          = [[Herbert Morrison]]
| office2             = [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour and National Service]]
| term_start2         = 13 May 1940
| term_end2           = 23 May 1945
| primeminister2      = [[Winston Churchill]]
| predecessor2        = [[Ernest Brown (MP)|Ernest Brown]]
| successor2          = [[Rab Butler]]
| office3             = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] <br /> for [[Woolwich East (UK Parliament constituency)|Woolwich East]]
| predecessor3        = [[George Hicks (trade unionist)|George Hicks]]
| successor3          = [[Christopher Mayhew]]
| term_start3         = 23 February 1950
| term_end3           = 14 April 1951
| office4             = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] <br /> for [[Wandsworth Central]]
| predecessor4        = [[Harry Nathan]]
| successor4          = [[Richard Adams (British politician)|Richard Adams]]
| term_start4         = 22 June 1940
| term_end4           = 3 February 1950
| office5             = General Secretary of the [[Transport and General Workers' Union]]
| term_start5         = 1 January 1922
| term_end5           = 27 July 1945
| predecessor5        = ''New office''
| successor5          = [[Arthur Deakin]]
| birth_date          = 9 March 1881
| birth_place         = [[Winsford, Somerset|Winsford]], [[Somerset]], England
| death_place         = [[London]], England
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1951|04|14|1881|3|9|df=y}}
| party               = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]
| spouse              = {{Marriage|Florence Anne Townley|1906}}
| children            = 1
}}
'''Ernest Bevin''' (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, [[trade union]] leader and [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician. He co-founded and served as [[General Secretary]] of the powerful [[Transport and General Workers' Union]] from 1922 to 1940 and served as [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour and National Service]] in the [[Coalition Government 1940–1945|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 [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Foreign Secretary]] in the [[post-war Labour government]], 1945–1951. He secured [[Marshall Aid]], strongly opposed [[communism]] and was the main drive behind the creation of [[NATO]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Meet the Signatories|url=https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_137725.htm|publisher=NATO|access-date=5 October 2024|quote="Ernest Bevin was a skilled orator and a former trade unionist who became one of the British Labour Party’s most prominent leaders. He was the main drive behind the creation of NATO. British Foreign Secretary from 1945 to 1951, a staunch anti-Communist and a critic of the Soviet Union, he was committed to bringing Western Europe together in a military alliance. He was eager to sign the Brussels Pact in 1948, opening the way for the formation of NATO in 1949. Bevin attended the first formative meetings of the North Atlantic Council. "}}</ref> Bevin was also instrumental to the founding of the [[Information Research Department|Information Research Department (IRD)]], a secret propaganda wing of the [[British Foreign Office]], which specialised in [[disinformation]], [[anti-communism]] and pro-colonial propaganda. Bevin played an important role in the end of the [[Mandate of Palestine]] and was strongly opposed to the establishment of the [[State of Israel]].<ref>During same period, the end of [[British India|British rule in India]] and the independence of [[India]] and East and West [[Pakistan]] (Bangladesh and Pakistan) were part of the remit of the [[India Office]], a separate government department</ref> His biographer [[Alan Bullock]] said that Bevin "stands as the last of the line of foreign secretaries in the tradition created by [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Castlereagh]], [[George Canning|Canning]] and [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Palmerston]] in the first half of the 19th century".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bullock|first1=Alan|title=Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary 1945–1951|date=1983|publisher=William Heinemann|isbn=978-0-434-09452-3|pages=75}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:Ernest Bevin 1920.jpg|thumb|left|Bevin in 1920]]
Bevin was born in the village of [[Winsford, Somerset|Winsford]] in [[Somerset]], [[England]], to Diana Bevin, who since 1877 had described herself as a widow. His father is unknown. After his mother's death in 1889, the young Bevin lived with his half-sister's family and moved to [[Copplestone]] in [[Devon]]. He had little formal education; he had briefly attended two village schools and then Hayward's School, [[Crediton]], starting in 1890 and leaving in 1892.<ref>Roger Steer, [http://www.rogersteer.com/from-the-hedgerows-of-devon-to-the-foreign-office "From the hedgerows of Devon to the Foreign Office"],  ''Devon Life'' Magazine, July 2002.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

He later recalled being asked as a child to read the newspaper aloud for the benefit of adults in his family who were illiterate. At the age of eleven, he went to work as a labourer, then as a lorry driver in [[Bristol]], where he joined the [[Bristol Socialist Society]]. In 1910 he became secretary of the Bristol branch of the [[Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union]], and in 1914 he became a national organiser for the union.<ref>{{cite web|title=Transport and General Workers' Union: Ernest Bevin Papers|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/1b593005-185e-3254-906f-344e8d902c0f|publisher=JISC|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref>

Bevin was a large, strong man, and by the time of his political prominence, he was very heavy. He spoke with such a strong [[West Country accent]] that on one occasion, listeners at Cabinet had difficulty in deciding whether he was talking about "Hugh and Nye ([[Hugh Gaitskell|Gaitskell]] and [[Aneurin Bevan|Bevan]])" or "you and I". He had developed his oratorical skills from his time as a [[Baptist]] lay preacher, which he had given up as a profession to become a full-time labour activist.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tombs|first1=Robert|title=The English and their History: The First Thirteen Centuries|date=2014|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-197679-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1b7QBAAAQBAJ&q=ernest+bevin+baptist+lay+preacher&pg=PT647}}</ref>

Bevin married Florence Townley, daughter of a wine taster at a Bristol wine merchants. They had one child, a daughter, Queenie Mildred Wynne (6 May 1911 – 31 January 2000). Florence Bevin (died 1968) was appointed [[Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (DBE) in 1952.<ref name=Stephen>{{cite book|last=Stephens|first=Mark|title=Ernest Bevin – Unskilled Labourer and World Statesman|page=19|publisher=[[Transport and General Workers Union]]|location=London, UK|year=1981}}</ref>

==Transport and General Workers' Union==
In 1922, Bevin was one of the founding leaders of the [[Transport and General Workers' Union]] (TGWU), which soon became Britain's largest [[trade union]]. Upon his election as the union's [[General Secretary]], he became one of the country's leading labour leaders and the strongest union advocate within the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. Politically, he was on the right wing of the Labour Party. He was strongly opposed to [[communism]] and [[direct action]]. His opponents claimed that was partly because of [[antisemitic]] paranoia, which made him see communism as a "Jewish plot" against Britain.<ref>Peter Weiler, ''Ernest Bevin'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), pp. 170–71</ref> He took part in the [[British General Strike]] in 1926 but without enthusiasm.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

Bevin had no great faith in parliamentary politics but had nevertheless been a member of the Labour Party from the time of its formation, and he unsuccessfully fought [[Bristol Central]] at the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918 general election]]. He was defeated by the [[Coalition Conservative]] [[Thomas Inskip]]. He had poor relations with the first Labour [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]], [[Ramsay MacDonald]], and was not surprised when MacDonald formed a [[First National Government 1931|National Government]] with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] during the economic crisis of 1931 for which MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party.

At the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]], Bevin was persuaded by the remaining leaders of the Labour Party to contest [[Gateshead (UK Parliament constituency)|Gateshead]] on the understanding that if successful he would remain as general secretary of the TGWU. The National Government won a landslide, which resulted in Gateshead being lost by a large margin to the [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|Liberal National]] [[Thomas Magnay]].<ref>Alan Bullock, ''Ernest Bevin: Trade Union Leader 1881 – 1940'' (1960) pp. 495–97.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

Bevin was a trade unionist who believed in getting material benefits for his members through direct negotiations with [[strike action]] to be used as a last resort. During the late 1930s, for instance, Bevin helped to instigate a successful campaign by the [[Trades Union Congress]] to extend [[paid holidays]] to a wider proportion of the workforce.<ref>Ernest Bevin by Peter Weiler</ref> That culminated in the [[Holidays with Pay Act 1938]], which extended entitlement to paid holidays to about 11 million workers by June 1939.<ref>Eric Hopkins, ''A Social History of the English Working Classes 1815–1945''.<!--publishing info, page(s) needed --></ref>

==Foreign policy interests==
During the 1930s, with the Labour Party split and weakened, Bevin co-operated with the Conservative-dominated [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] on practical issues, but during that period, he became increasingly involved in foreign policy. He was a firm opponent of [[fascism]] and of the British [[appeasement]] of the fascist powers.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Toye|first1=Richard| author-link = Richard Toye | title=The Labour Party and the Economics of Rearmament, 1935–1939|url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/26952/Rearmament.pdf|publisher=University of Exeter|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref> In 1935, arguing that [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] should be punished by sanctions for its recent [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|invasion]] of [[Abyssinia]], he made a blistering attack on the [[pacifists]] in the Labour Party and accused the Labour leader [[George Lansbury]] at the Party Conference of "hawking his conscience around" and of asking to be told what to do with it.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goddar|first1=Pete|last2=Hatwal|first2=Atul|title=Labour history uncut: Ernie Bevin "hammers George Lansbury to death" and changes the course of party history|url=http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2014/01/02/labour-history-uncut-ernie-bevin-hammers-george-lansbury-to-death-and-changes-the-course-of-party-history/|publisher=Labour Uncut|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref> Bevin's efforts to promote sanctions were successful, with an overwhelming majority of delegates voting in favour of sanctions.<ref>Bouverie, Tim (2019). ''Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War'' (1 ed.). New York: [[Tim Duggan Books]]. p. 99. {{ISBN|978-0-451-49984-4}}. {{OCLC|1042099346}}.</ref>

After the vote at the conference, Lansbury resigned and was replaced as leader by his deputy, [[Clement Attlee]], who, along with Lansbury and [[Stafford Cripps]], had been one of only three former Labour Ministers to be re-elected under that party label at the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bew|first1=John|title=Clement Attlee: An unromantic hero|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/unromantic-hero|access-date=16 March 2017|work=New Statesman|date=26 September 2013}}</ref> After the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|November 1935 general election]], [[Herbert Morrison]], who was newly returned to Parliament, challenged Attlee for the leadership but was defeated. In later years, Bevin gave Attlee, whom he privately referred to as "little Clem", staunch support, especially in 1947, when Morrison and Cripps led further intrigue against Attlee.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Beckett|first1=Francis|author-link = Francis Beckett|title=Clement Attlee, the original Ed Miliband|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/06/clement-attlee-original-ed-miliband|access-date=16 March 2017|work=New Statesman|date=20 June 2014}}</ref>

Bevin was a member of the British delegation to the second British Commonwealth Relations conference. It was held at Lapstone, Sydney, Australia in 1938 organised by [[Chatham House]] and the [[Australian Institute of International Affairs]] with delegations from all the then existing Commonwealth countries.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Hodson | editor-first=H.V. | title=The British Commonwealth and the Future. (Proceedings of the second unofficial conference on British Commonwealth Relations, Sydney, 3rd-17th September 1938 | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1939}} (issued under the auspices of The Royal Institute of International Affairs).</ref>

==Wartime Minister of Labour==
[[File:INF3-61 Ernest Bevin Artist Arthur Boughey.jpg|thumb|Sketch of Bevin commissioned by the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] during the [[Second World War]]]]
In 1940, [[Winston Churchill]] formed an [[Churchill war ministry|all-party coalition government]] to run the country during the [[Second World War]]. Churchill was impressed by Bevin's opposition to trade union pacifism and by his appetite for work (according to Churchill, Bevin was by "far the most distinguished man that the Labour Party have thrown up in my time"). He appointed Bevin to the position of [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour and National Service]].<ref name=barr2011>{{cite book|last=Barr|first=James| author-link =James Barr (author) | title=A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that Shaped the Middle East|publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=London, UK|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84739-457-6}}</ref> As Bevin was not actually an MP at the time, to remove the resulting constitutional anomaly, a parliamentary position was hurriedly found for him, and Bevin was [[1940 Wandsworth Central by-election|elected unopposed]] to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] as [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for the London constituency of [[Wandsworth Central]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ernest Bevin (1881–1951)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bevin_ernest.shtml|publisher=BBC|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref>

The [[Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939]] gave Bevin complete control over the labour force and the allocation of manpower, and he was determined to use the unprecedented authority not just to help win the war but also to strengthen the bargaining position of trade unions in the postwar future.<ref>Borth, Christy. ''Masters of Mass Production,'' p. 74, Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1945.</ref> Bevin once quipped: "They say [[Gladstone]] was at the [[Treasury]] from 1860 until 1930. I'm going to be at the [[Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Labour]] from 1940 until 1990," suggesting he aspired to have his doctrines remain at the Ministry of Labour as long as [[Gladstonian liberalism|Gladstone's economic policies]] had governed the Treasury's approach. The industrial settlement he introduced remained largely unaltered by successive postwar administrations until the reforms of [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s [[Premiership of Margaret Thatcher|government]] in the early 1980s.
[[File:Churchill waves to crowds.jpg|thumb|Ernest Bevin standing to the right of [[Winston Churchill]] who waves to crowds on [[Whitehall]] on [[Victory in Europe Day|VE Day, 8 May 1945]], after broadcasting to the nation that the war against Germany had been won.|left]]
During the war, Bevin was responsible for diverting nearly 48,000 military conscripts to work in the [[coal mining in the United Kingdom|coal industry]] (the workers became known as the [[Bevin Boys]]), and he used his position to secure significant improvements in wages and working conditions for the working class.<ref>A History of Work in Britain, 1880–1950 by Arthur McIvor</ref> He also drew up the [[demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War|demobilisation scheme]] that ultimately returned millions of military personnel and civilian war workers into the peacetime economy. Bevin remained Minister of Labour until 1945 when Labour left the Coalition government. On [[VE Day]], he stood next to Churchill in looking down on the crowd on [[Whitehall]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Lydia|title=Winston Churchill's 1945 Victory in Europe Day speech in full|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/winston-churchills-1945-victory-europe-day-speech-full-1500190|access-date=16 March 2017|work=International Business Times|date=8 May 2015}}</ref>

==Foreign Secretary==
[[File:Bevin Attlee H 42138.jpg|thumb|Ernest Bevin (left) with [[Clement Attlee]] in 1945]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R67561, Potsdamer Konferenz, Konferenztisch.jpg|thumb|[[Potsdam Conference]]: [[Clement Attlee]], Ernest Bevin, [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], [[Joseph Stalin]], [[William D. Leahy]], [[James F. Byrnes]] and [[Harry S. Truman]].]]
Following the 1945 general election, Attlee had it in mind to appoint Bevin as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer|Chancellor]] and [[Hugh Dalton]] as [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]], but ultimately changed his mind and swapped them round. One of the reasons may well have been the poor relations which existed between Bevin and [[Herbert Morrison]], who was scheduled to play a leading role in Labour domestic policy.<ref name="Charmley 1995, pp184-5">Charmley 1995, pp. 184–85</ref>
[[File:USA C-1860 (26246410746).jpg|thumb|Bevin at the Potsdam Conference]]
Diplomats were then recruited from [[public school (United Kingdom)|public schools]], and it was said of Bevin that it was hard to imagine him filling any other job in the Foreign Office except perhaps that of an old and truculent lift attendant. In praise of Bevin, his Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, [[Alexander Cadogan]], wrote, "He knows a great deal, is prepared to read any amount, seems to take in what he does read, and is capable of making up his own mind and sticking up for his (and our) point of view against anyone".<ref name=barr2011/> An alternative view is offered by Charmley, who writes that Bevin read and wrote with some difficulty and that examination of Foreign Office documents shows little sign of the frequent annotations made by Anthony Eden. That suggests that Bevin preferred to reach most of his decisions after oral discussion with his advisers.<ref name="Charmley 1995, pp184-5"/>

However, Charmley dismisses the concerns of contemporaries such as [[Charles Webster (historian)|Charles Webster]] and [[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Lord Cecil of Chelwood]] that Bevin, a man of very strong personality, was "in the hands of his officials". Charmley argues that much of Bevin's success came because he shared the views of those officials. His earlier career had left him with an intense dislike of communists, whom he regarded as workshy intellectuals whose attempts to infiltrate trade unions were to be resisted. His former Private Secretary, [[Oliver Harvey, 1st Baron Harvey of Tasburgh|Oliver Harvey]], thought Bevin's staunchly anti-Soviet policy was what Eden's would have been had he not been hamstrung by the [[Potsdam Conference]] and Churchill's occasional susceptibility to Stalin's flattery, and Cadogan thought Bevin to be "pretty sound on the whole".<ref name="Charmley 1995, pp184-5"/>

According to Geoffrey Warner:
:Bevin's personality was a strange mixture of [[Jekyll and Hyde]]. He was adored by his officials, not only because there was never any doubt that foreign policy was made in the Foreign Office while he was its head, but also because he was as solicitous of their welfare and conditions of employment as he had been of those of his union members. His word was universally regarded as his bond and his loyalty once given was unstinting. At the same time, as even his admirers have conceded, he was long-winded, vain, vindictive, profoundly suspicious, and prejudiced against—among others and in no particular order—[[Jews]], [[Germans]], [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholics]], and [[intellectual]]s of all kinds, groups that, when taken together, comprised a large proportion of those with whom he had to deal.<ref>Geoffrey Warner, "Ernest Bevin and British Foreign Policy, 1945–1951" in  ''The Diplomats, 1939–1979'' ed. by Gordon A. Craig And Francis L. Loewenheim. (Princeton UP, 1994) p 104 [http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctv8pz9nc.9 online]</ref>

===United States===
The historian Martin H. Folly argues that Bevin was not automatically pro-American. Instead, he pushed his [[Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.|embassy in Washington]] to project a view of Britain that neutralised American criticisms. He felt that Britain's problems were in part caused by American irresponsibility. He was frustrated with American attitudes. His strategy was to bring Washington around to support Britain's policies and argued that Britain had earned American support and ought to compensate it for its sacrifices against the Nazis. Folly considers that Bevin was not coldly pragmatic uncritically pro-American or a puppet manipulated by the British Foreign Office.<ref>Martin H. Folly, "'The impression is growing... that the United States is hard when dealing with us': Ernest Bevin and Anglo-American relations at the dawn of the cold war", ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 10#2 (2012): 150–66.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Bevin's complex position on the US is betrayed in the following quotation, which was given in response to an American visitor who asked Bevin why he had a portrait of [[George III]] behind his desk: "[He's] my hero. If he hadn't been so stupid, you wouldn't have been strong enough to come to our rescue in the [[Second World War|War]]."<ref>{{cite news|journal=[[The Globe and Mail]]|author = [[David Shribman]]|date=5 February 2022|title=A royal rethink of the much-maligned George III}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=George III: The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch|author=[[Andrew Roberts (historian)|Andrew Roberts]]|year=2021|publisher=[[Random House UK]]}}</ref>

===Finances===
In 1945, Britain was virtually bankrupt as a result of the war but was still maintaining a huge air force and conscript army in an attempt to remain a global power. Bevin played a key role in securing the low-interest $3.75 billion [[Anglo-American loan]] as the only real alternative to national bankruptcy. He had asked originally for $5 billion.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Grant Jr|first1=Philip A.|year=1995|title=President Harry S. Truman and the British Loan Act of 1946|journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly|volume=25|issue=3|pages=489–96}}</ref>

The cost of rebuilding necessitated austerity at home to maximise export earnings while Britain's colonies and other client states were required to keep their [[foreign exchange reserves|reserves]] in [[pound sterling|pounds]] as "sterling balances". Additional funds, which did not have to be repaid, came from the [[Marshall Plan]] in 1948 to 1950, which also required Britain to modernise its business practices and to remove trade barriers.<ref name=saville>{{cite journal|last1=Saville|first1=John|title=Ernest Bevin and the Cold War 1945–1950|journal=The Socialist Register|date=1984|pages=68–100|url=http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/viewFile/5506/2404}}</ref>

===Europe===
Bevin looked for ways to bring [[Western Europe]] together in a military alliance at the beginning of the [[Cold War]]. One early attempt was the [[Dunkirk Treaty]] with France in 1947.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baylis|first1=John|year=1982|title=Britain and the Dunkirk Treaty: The Origins of NATO|journal=Journal of Strategic Studies|volume=5|issue=2|pages=236–47|doi=10.1080/01402398208437111}}</ref> His commitment to the West European security system made him eager to sign the [[Treaty of Brussels]] in 1948. It drew Britain, [[French Fourth Republic|France]], [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]] and [[Luxembourg]] into an arrangement for [[collective security]] and opened the way for the formation of [[NATO]] in 1949. NATO was primarily aimed as a defensive measure against Soviet expansion, but it also helped bring its members closer together, enabled them to modernise their forces along parallel lines and encouraged arms purchases from Britain.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Baylis|first1=John|year=1984|title=Britain, the Brussels Pact and the continental commitment|journal=International Affairs|volume=60|issue=4|pages=615–29|doi=10.2307/2620045|jstor=2620045}}</ref> Bevin was also instrumental in the creation of the [[Council of Europe]], with the signature of its [[Statute of the Council of Europe|Statute]] on 5 May 1949, at [[St James's Palace]], London, by the Foreign Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Britain was still closely allied to France, and both countries continued to be treated as major partners at international summits alongside the Americans and the Soviets until 1960. Broadly speaking, they remained Britain's foreign policy until the late 1950s, when the humiliation of the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] and the economic revival of [[Continental Europe]], much of which was now united as the "[[Common Market]]", caused a reappraisal.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Simon C.|title=Reassessing Suez 1956: New Perspectives on the Crisis and Its Aftermath|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-07069-6|pages=25–26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wv7sCwAAQBAJ&q=Ernest+Bevin+1956+Suez+crisis&pg=PA25}}</ref>

===Empire===
[[File:British Empire and Commonwealth 1945.xcf|thumb|upright=1.5|The British Empire and Commonwealth in 1945]]
Bevin was unsentimental about the [[British Empire]] in places for which the growth of [[nationalism]] had made direct rule no longer practicable. He was part of the Cabinet that approved a speedy British withdrawal from [[British Raj|India]] in 1947 and neighbouring colonies. However, Britain still maintained a network of [[client state]]s in the [[Middle East]] ([[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]] until 1952, [[Kingdom of Iraq|Iraq]] and [[Emirate of Transjordan|Jordan]] until 1959) and major bases in such places as [[British Cyprus|Cyprus]] and [[Suez Canal|Suez]] (until 1956) and expected to remain in control of parts of Africa for many more years. Bevin approved the construction of a huge new base in [[Kenya Colony|East Africa]]. Bevin wrote that, "We have the material resources in the Colonial Empire, if we develop them, and by giving a spiritual lead now, we should be able to carry out our task in a way which will show clearly that we are not subservient to the United States of America or to the Soviet Union." Colonial exports then earned $150 million a year, mostly [[British Malaya|Malayan]] rubber, West African cocoa, and sugar and sisal from the [[British West Indies|West Indies]]. By the end of 1948, colonial exports were 50% higher than before the war, and in the first half of 1948, colonial exports accounted for 10.4% of Britain's imports. After the war, Britain helped France and the Netherlands recover their Far Eastern colonies in the [[French Indochina]] and [[Dutch East Indies]] in the hope that could lead towards the formation of a third superpower bloc. Bevin agreed with [[Duff Cooper]], the British Ambassador in Paris, that the Dunkirk Treaty would be a step in this direction and thought that Eden's objection in 1944, when Cooper first proposed it, that such moves might alienate the Soviets no longer applied.<ref>Charmley 1995 pp. 237–38</ref>

In December 1947, Bevin hoped (in vain) that the US would support Britain's "strategic, political and economic position in the Middle East". In May 1950 Bevin told the London meeting of foreign ministers that "the United States authorities had recently seemed disposed to press us to adopt a greater measure of economic integration with Europe than we thought wise." He was referring to the [[Schuman Plan]] to set up the [[European Coal and Steel Community]]. In May 1950, he said that because of links with the US and the Commonwealth, Britain was "different in character from other European nations and fundamentally incapable of wholehearted integration with them."<ref>Charmley 1995 pp. 246–48</ref>

===Cold War===
Bevin remained a determined [[anti-Communist]] and [[anti-Soviet]]. In 1946 during a conference, Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] repeatedly attacked British proposals and defended Soviet policies, and in total frustration, Bevin stood, lurched towards the minister and shouted, "I've had enough of this I 'ave!" He was then restrained by security.<ref>Walter LaFeber,  ''The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad'', New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1994.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

He strongly encouraged the United States to take a vigorously anti-Communist foreign policy in the early years of the Cold War. This included taking a robust stance during the [[Berlin Blockade|Berlin blockade and airlift]] of 1948-49,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colman |first=Jonathan |url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180964/ |title=Britain's 'Mr X': Sir Frank Roberts and the Making of British Foreign Policy, 1930-68 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2025 |location=Manchester |pages=93–110}}</ref> and he was a leading advocate for British combat operations in the [[Korean War]]. Two of the key institutions of the postwar world, NATO and the [[Marshall Plan]], for aid to postwar Europe, were in considerable part the result of Bevin's efforts during these years. The policy, which was little different from that of the Conservatives ("Hasn't [[Anthony Eden]] grown fat?" as wags had it), was a source of frustration to some backbench Labour MPs, who early in the 1945 Parliament formed a "[[Keep Left (pamphlet)|Keep Left]]" group to push for a more left-wing foreign policy.<ref name=saville/>

In 1945, Bevin advocated the creation of a [[United Nations Parliamentary Assembly]] and said in the House of Commons, "There should be a study of a house directly elected by the people of the world to whom the nations are accountable".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shorten|first1=Andrew|title=Contemporary Political Theory|date=2015|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-29916-1|page=105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r8q9CgAAQBAJ&q=There+should+be+a+study+of+a+house+directly+elected+by+the+people+of+the+world+to+whom+the+nations+are+accountable&pg=PA105}}</ref>

In 1950, Bevin offered recognition to the [[People's Republic of China]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Ernest Bevin |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Bevin |work=Encyclopaedia Britannica}}</ref>

===Atomic bomb===
Attlee and Bevin worked together on the decision to produce a [[nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom|British atomic bomb]] despite intense opposition from pro-Soviet elements of the Labour Party, groups that Bevin detested. The decision was taken in secret by a small Cabinet committee. Bevin told the committee in October 1946, "We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs.... We've got to have the bloody Union Jack flying on top of it". It was a matter of both prestige and national security. Those ministers who would have opposed the bomb on grounds of cost, [[Hugh Dalton]] and Sir [[Stafford Cripps]], were excluded from the meeting in January 1947 at which the final decision was taken.<ref>Graham Goodlad, "Attlee, Bevin and Britain's Cold War," ''History Review'' (2011) Issue 69, pp 1–6 for quote.</ref><ref>Kenneth O. Morgan, ''Labour in Power 1945–1951'' (1985) pp 280–4</ref><ref>Peter Hennessy, ''Cabinets and the Bomb'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 48.</ref>

===Palestine and Israel===
[[File:Bevingrad.jpg|thumb|The security zone in [[Jerusalem]] was dubbed "Bevingrad" during Bevin's term in the Foreign Office.]]
Bevin was Foreign Secretary during the period when the [[Mandate for Palestine]] ended, and the State of [[Israel]] was created. In 1944, for the upcoming [[1945 United Kingdom general election]], the Labour Party had issued a statement pledging to revoke the [[White Paper of 1939]], permit free Jewish immigration to Palestine and turn Palestine into a Jewish state. It had even advocated the population transfers of Arabs and called for the expansion of a future Jewish state's borders into Transjordan, Egypt, and/or Syria.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wheatcroft |first=Geoffrey |date=2001-08-07 |title=It's not racism, it's colonialism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/08/comment.geoffreywheatcroft |access-date=2024-06-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> However, in office, Bevin maintained the immigration restrictions. Wanting to protect British hegemony in the Middle East, he broke the party's promise and instead sought to follow through on the terms of White Paper. While acting mainly out of pragmatism, Bevin was an ideological anti-Zionist who believed that the [[Balfour Declaration]] had been a mistake and was concerned that a Jewish state would become a "racial state". His policies would spark a [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|direct confrontation between British security forces and Zionist paramilitaries in Palestine]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=Dr. Weizmann Charges Bevin with Helping to Promote Unrest in Palestine |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/dr-weizmann-charges-bevin-with-helping-to-promote-unrest-in-palestine |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref> Bevin later told [[David Ben-Gurion]] that the Balfour Declaration had been the worst Western foreign policy blunder in the first half of the 20th-century.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shlaim |first=Avi |date=2009-06-27 |title=The declaration that changed history for ever |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/28/balfour-and-weizmann-geoffrey-lewis |access-date=2025-01-21 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

Bevin's stance on Palestine infuriated some members of his party. Party chairman [[Harold Laski]] denounced Bevin as "an outrageous blot on the whole Labour movement." [[Richard Crossman]], a pro-Zionist Labour MP who knew Bevin, said the war was fueled almost entirely by "one man's determination to teach the Jews a lesson."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fox |first=Jonathan |date=July 2021 |title=The British Example |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/39979/chapter/340296228 |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=academic.oup.com|pages=142–163 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197580349.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-758034-9 }}</ref> However, Bevin's actions were backed by Attlee, who opposed the establishment of a Jewish state on the grounds it would jeopardise Britain's position as the dominant power in the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vaughan |first=James |date=2023-11-08 |title=Israel, Palestine and the Labour party history that has made Keir Starmer's position so difficult |url=http://theconversation.com/israel-palestine-and-the-labour-party-history-that-has-made-keir-starmers-position-so-difficult-217021 |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>

Bevin failed to secure the stated British objectives in that area of foreign policy, which included a peaceful settlement of the situation and the avoidance of involuntary [[population transfers]]. Regarding Bevin's handling of the Middle East situation, at least one commentator, David Leitch, has suggested that Bevin lacked diplomatic finesse.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Leitch|editor-last=Sissons|editor-first=Michael|editor2-last=French|editor2-first=Philip|contribution=Explosion at the King David Hotel|title=Age of Austerity 1945–51|year=1963|page=81|place=Harmondsworth, UK|publisher=Penguin}}<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Leitch argued that Bevin tended to make a bad situation worse by making ill-chosen abrasive remarks. Bevin, undeniably a plain-spoken man, made some remarks that struck some as insensitive. Critics have accused him of being [[antisemitic]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=U.S. Zionist Leaders Charge Bevin with Anti-semitism at Huge Protest Demonstration |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/u-s-zionist-leaders-charge-bevin-with-anti-semitism-at-huge-protest-demonstration |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress Assail Bevin's Palestine Statement |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/american-jewish-committee-american-jewish-congress-assail-bevins-palestine-statement |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref> One remark which caused particular anger was made when U.S. President [[Harry Truman]] was pressing Britain to immediately admit 100,000 [[emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe|Jewish refugees]], [[Sh'erit ha-Pletah|survivors]] of the [[Holocaust]] who wanted to [[Aliyah|immigrate to Palestine]]. Bevin, who refused to accept this request unless Truman sent American troops to Palestine, told a Labour Party meeting the reasons that he thought were behind the American pressure: pressure was being applied because "There has been agitation in the United States, and particularly in New York, for 100,000 Jews to be put in Palestine. I hope I will not be misunderstood in America if I say that this was proposed by the purest of motives. They did not want too many Jews in New York."<ref>Text of speech by Ernest Bevin at the Labour Party Conference, Bournemouth, 12 June 1946, General Public Statements, FO 371, 52529/E5546</ref> He was merely restating what he said had been told to him by [[James F. Byrnes]], the [[US Secretary of State]].<ref name=barr2011/>

For refusing to remove limits on Jewish immigration to Palestine in the aftermath of the war, Bevin earned the hatred of [[Zionists]]. According to the historian [[Howard Sachar]], his political foe, Richard Crossman, a pro-Zionist member of the postwar [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry|Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine]], characterised his outlook during the dying days of the Mandate as "corresponding roughly with ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]''", a tsarist fabrication written to inflame antisemitic prejudice. In Sachar's account, Crossman intimated that "the main points of Bevin's discourse were... that the Jews had successfully organised a conspiracy against Britain and against him personally".<ref>{{cite book|last=Sachar|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Sachar|year=1996|title=A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofisraelf00sach|url-access=registration|edition=2|publisher=Knopf|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofisraelf00sach/page/296 296]|isbn=0-394-73679-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Crossman|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Crossman|title=A Nation Reborn|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|location=London|page=69|quote=he [Bevin] became convinced that the Jews were organising a world conspiracy against poor old Britain and, in particular, against poor old Ernie}}</ref> Bevin's biographer Alan Bullock rejected suggestions that Bevin was motivated by personal antisemitism.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hitchens|first1=Christopher|title=Ernest Bevin: A Class Act|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1984/04/22/ernest-bevin-a-class-act/09702e94-8688-4f6d-89a5-7f0fb90d10e5/|access-date=17 March 2017|newspaper=Washington Post|date=22 April 1984}}</ref>

[[File:Bernadotte funeral.jpg|thumb|right|[[Count Folke Bernadotte]]'s funeral September 1948: From left: [[Sir Alexander Cadogan]], Ernest Bevin, [[George Marshall]], [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]].]]
Britain's economic weakness and its dependence on the financial support of the United States (Britain had received a large American loan in 1946, and the Marshall Plan began in mid-1947) left him little alternative but to yield to American pressure over Palestine policy. At the reconvened [[London 6-Power Conference|London Conference]] in January 1947, the Jewish negotiators were prepared to accept only partition and the Arab negotiators only a unitary state, which would automatically have had an Arab majority. Neither would accept limited autonomy under British rule. When no agreement could be reached, Bevin threatened to hand the problem over to the [[United Nations]]. The threat failed to move either side, the Jewish representatives because they believed that Bevin was bluffing and the Arab representatives because they believed that their cause would prevail before the [[UN General Assembly]]. Bevin accordingly announced that he would "ask the UN to take the Palestine question into consideration."<ref name=CesaraniMFH>{{cite book|last=Cesarani|first=David |author-link=David Cesarani|title=Major Farran's Hat: Murder, Scandal And Britain's War Against Jewish Terrorism 1945–1948|publisher= Vintage Books|location=London|year=2010}}</ref>

A week later, the strategic logic of Britain retaining a presence in Palestine was removed when the intention to withdraw from India in August that year was announced.<ref name=CesaraniMFH/> The decision to allow the [[United Nations]] to dictate the future of Palestine was formalised by the [[Attlee government]]'s public declaration in February 1947 that Britain's Mandate in Palestine had become "unworkable". Of the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]] which resulted, Bevin commented: "The majority proposal is so manifestly unjust to the Arabs that it is difficult to see how, in Sir Alexander Cadogan's words, 'we could reconcile it with our conscience.'"<ref>The National Archives (TNA): [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7655193 CAB 129/21/9], p 4</ref>

The [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|fighting between the Jewish and Arab communities]] continued to escalate until the end of the Mandate. Britain's final withdrawal from Palestine was marked by the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]] and the start of the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]], when five Arab states intervened in the intercommunal fighting. The Arab armies were led by Jordan, the most effective state, whose [[Arab Legion |military forces]] were trained and led by British officers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/18th-june-1948/6/the-arab-legion |title=THE ARAB LEGION » 17 Jun 1948 » The Spectator Archive |website=Archive.spectator.co.uk |date=17 June 1948 |access-date=17 January 2017}}</ref> The war ended with Israel, in addition to the territory assigned by the UN for the creation of a Jewish state, also in control of much of the Mandate territory that had been assigned by the UN for the creation of an Arab state. The remainder was divided between Jordan and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly Arab civilians [[1948 Palestinian exodus|had been displaced]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Asser|first1=Martin|title=Obstacles to Arab-Israeli peace: Palestinian refugees|work=BBC News|date=2 September 2010|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11104284|access-date=17 March 2017}}</ref>

Bevin was infuriated by attacks on British troops carried out by the more extreme of the Jewish militant groups, the [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], commonly known as the Stern Gang. The [[Haganah]] carried out less direct attacks until the [[King David Hotel bombing]], when it restricted itself to [[illegal immigration]] activities.<ref name=CesaraniMFH/> According to declassified [[MI6]] files, the Irgun and the Lehi attempted to assassinate Bevin himself in 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12205.htm|title=Jewish plot to kill Bevin in London|website=Informationclearinghouse.info|access-date=17 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025062553/http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12205.htm|archive-date=25 October 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Jamie Wilson|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/may/22/past.politics|title=Terrorists plotted death of Bevin &#124; UK news |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=17 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Tweedie|first1=Neil|last2=Day|first2=Peter|date=22 May 2003|title=Jewish groups plotted to kill Bevin|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1430766/Jewish-groups-plotted-to-kill-Bevin.html|newspaper=[[Telegraph Media Group|The Telegraph]]|location=London, UK|access-date=30 September 2015}}</ref>

Bevin negotiated the [[Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948|Portsmouth Treaty]] with Iraq (signed on 15 January 1948), which, according to Iraqi Foreign Minister [[Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali]], was accompanied by a British undertaking to withdraw from Palestine in such a fashion as to provide for swift Arab occupation of all its territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physics.harvard.edu/~wilson/Fadhel.html|title=Arab Struggle; Experiences of Mohammed Fadhel Jamali|author=Jamali, Mohammed Fadhel|publisher=Widener Library, Harvard University|access-date=2 May 2010|archive-date=17 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717022602/http://www.physics.harvard.edu/%7Ewilson/Fadhel.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Later life==
[[File:ErnestBevinv02.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Bust of Ernest Bevin in [[Southwark]], South London]]
Owing to failing health, Bevin reluctantly allowed himself to be appointed [[Lord Privy Seal]] in March 1951. "I am neither a Lord, nor a Privy, nor a Seal", he is said to have commented.<ref>Francis Beckett, ''Clem Attlee'' (London: Richard Cohen Books, 1997), p. 285</ref> He died from a heart attack<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thearticle.com/labours-churchill|title=Labour's Churchill|date=26 June 2020|website=TheArticle}}</ref> in the following month, still holding the key to his [[red box (government)|red box]]. His ashes are buried in [[Westminster Abbey]].

Upon [[Stafford Cripps]]'s death in 1952, Clement Attlee (by this time Leader of the Opposition) was invited to broadcast a tribute by the [[BBC]]. He was looked after by announcer Frank Phillips. After the broadcast, Phillips took Attlee to the hospitality room for a drink and in order to make conversation said:<blockquote>"I suppose you will miss Sir Stafford, sir."<br />Attlee fixed him with his eye: "Did you know Ernie Bevin?"<br />"I have met him, sir," Phillips replied.<br />"There's the man I miss."</blockquote>

[[James Chuter Ede]], [[Home Secretary]] throughout the time that Bevin was at the Foreign Office (and for a few months after his death), had worked with Churchill, Attlee, [[Keynes]] and many other significant figures.  When Bevin's biographer, Alan Bullock, asked Chuter Ede for his view of Bevin, he replied:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bullock|first1=Alan|title=Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary 1945–1951|date=1983|publisher=William Heinemann|isbn=978-0-434-09452-3|pages=93}}</ref><blockquote>"Was he the biggest man I met in the Labour movement? He was the biggest man I met in any movement."</blockquote>

A bust of Bevin has been placed opposite [[Devon Mansions]] and the former [[St Olave's Grammar School]] in [[Tooley Street]], South London. Bevin was offered many honours as his reputation grew, but declined all of them.<ref>[[BBC Radio Four]] [[Great Lives]], Series 51- Ernest Bevin, broadcast 1 September 2020</ref>

==Assessments==
Martin Folly argues that assessments on Bevin as foreign secretary divide into two schools.<ref>Martin H.  Folly, "'The impression is growing... that the United States is hard when dealing with us': Ernest Bevin and Anglo-American relations at the dawn of the cold war." ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 10.2 (2012): 150–166.</ref> After the opening of the British archives, historians, led by the biographer [[Alan Bullock]] celebrated Bevin as one of the great men in British diplomatic history.<ref>Peter Weiler, "Britain and the First Cold War: Revisionist Beginnings," Twentieth Century British History 9 (1998), 131; Anne Deighton, ''The Impossible Peace. Britain, the Division of Germany, and the Origins of the Cold War'' (1990).</ref> They argued that he dominated foreign policy; led the Foreign Office by strength of character and clarity of vision; and carried through on his grand design for Britain's revised role in world affairs, especially in close alliance with the United States, his support for NATO, and his rejection of an alternative of Britain as a neutral third force, as advocated by the left wing of his party. He succeeded in convincing the United States to take over some of Britain's burdens, especially Greece. He thereby became a major influence in pushing the United States into a leadership role through the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO and the Cold War.

However, a revisionist approach appeared in the late 1980s. It portrays Bevin as a narrow-minded anti-Communist and gives more credit to the Foreign Office for the new foreign policy. In that interpretation, Bevin lost the opportunity to make Britain a leader in European affairs, and it instead became more of a tail on the American kite.<ref>Peter Weiler, "Britain and the First Cold War: Revisionist Beginnings", ''Twentieth Century British History''  (1998) 9#1: 127–138; Anne Deighton, ''The Impossible Peace. Britain, the Division of Germany, and the Origins of the Cold War'' (1990).</ref>

==In popular culture==
Bevin was featured prominently in [[Jack Thorne]]'s 2023 play ''[[When Winston Went to War with the Wireless]]'', played by Kevin McMonagle.<ref>{{cite web |title=Donmar Warehouse reveals complete cast for "When Winston Went to War with the Wireless" |url=https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/donmar-warehouse-reveals-complete-cast-for-when-winston-went-to-war-with-the-wireless_58814/ |website=[[WhatsOnStage.com]] |access-date=25 August 2023 |date=24 April 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Politics|United Kingdom|Organised labour|Socialism}}
* [[Aneurin Bevan]], a rival minister in the same Labour government; he was to the left of Bevin
* [[Ernest Bevin Academy]]
* [[History of trade unions in the United Kingdom]]
* [[SS Exodus|SS ''Exodus'']]
* [[Information Research Department|Information Research Department (IRD)]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Adonis, Andrew. ''Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill'' (Biteback Publishing, 2020).
* Bullock, Alan. ''The Life & Times of Ernest Bevin: Volume One: Trade Union Leader 1881 – 1940'' (1960);  ''The life and times of Ernest Bevin: volume two Minister of Labour 1940–1945'' (1967); ''The life and times of Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945–1951'' (1983) [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28Ernest%20Bevin%29 online]
**[[Alan Bullock]]'s magisterial three-volume biography  was re-published in a single-volume abridged version by [[Politicos Publishing]] in 2002.
* {{cite book|last=Charmley|first=John|title=Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940–57|publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]]|location=London|year=1996|isbn=978-0-340-59760-6|oclc=247165348}}[Discusses Bevin's policies ''apropos'' of Anglo-American relations of the era]
* Colman, Jonathan, ''[https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180964/ Britain's 'Mr X': Sir Frank Roberts and the Making of British Foreign Policy, 1930-68]'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025: ISBN 9781526180964). Chapter 5, pp.93-110, examines the role of [[Frank Roberts (diplomat)|Roberts]], who was Bevin's Principal Private Secretary, 1947-49.
* Deighton, Anne. "Entente Neo-Coloniale?: Ernest Bevin and the Proposals for an Anglo–French Third World Power, 1945–1949," ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' (2006) 17#4 pp 835–852. Bevin in 1945–49 advocated cooperation with France as the base of a "Third World Power," which would be a third strategic center of power in addition to the United States and the Soviet Union. 
* Folly, Martin H. "‘The impression is growing...that the United States is hard when dealing with us’: Ernest Bevin and Anglo-American relations at the dawn of the cold war." ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 10#2 (2012): 150–166.
* Goodlad, Graham. "Attlee, Bevin and Britain's Cold War," ''History Review'' (2011), Issue 69, pp 1–6
* Greenwood, Sean. "Bevin, the Ruhr and the Division of Germany: August 1945 – December 1946," ''Historical Journal'' (1986) 29#1 pp 203–212. Argues that Bevin saw the Ruhr as the centerpiece of his strategy for the industrial revitalisation of Europe. He insisted on keeping the Soviets out, and this position made him one of the principal architects of a divided Germany. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639263 in JSTOR]
* Inman, P.F. ''Labour in the munitions industries'' (1957), official WW2 history.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Jones | first1 = J. Graham | year = 2001 | title = Ernest Bevin and the General Strike | journal = Llafur | volume = 8 | issue = 2| pages = 97–103 }}
* [[Denis MacShane]] contributed an essay on Bevin to the ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', Greg Rosen (ed), [[Politicos Publishing]], 2001.
* [[Ferdinand Mount]], "The Importance of Being Ernie" (review of [[Andrew Adonis]], ''Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill'', Biteback, July 2020, 352 pp., {{ISBN|978 1 78590 598 8}}), ''[[London Review of Books]]'', vol. 42, no. 21 (5 November 2020), pp.&nbsp;27–28.
* Ovendale, R. ed. ''The foreign policy of the British labour governments, 1945–51'' (1984) · 
* Parker, H. M. D. ''Manpower: a study of war-time policy and administration'' (1957), official WW2 history.
* Pearce, Robert. "Ernest Bevin: Robert Pearce Examines the Career of the Man Who Was Successively Trade Union Leader, Minister of Labour and Foreign Secretary" ''History Review'' (Dec 2002) [https://www.questia.com/article/1G1-95106401/ernest-bevin-robert-pearce-examines-the-career-of online]
* Pearce, Robert. "Ernest Bevin" in Kevin Jefferys, ed., ''Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown'' (2002) pp 7–24
* Saville, J. ''The politics of continuity: British foreign policy and the Labour government, 1945–46'' (1993)· 
* Stephens, Mark. ''Ernest Bevin – Unskilled Labourer and World Statesman'' (1981)·
* Vickers, Rhiannon. ''The Labour Party and the world, volume 1: The evolution of Labour's foreign policy, 1900–51'' (Manchester UP, 2010). [http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1389424/1/Final%2520Thesis.pdf online free] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101224341/http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1389424/1/Final%2520Thesis.pdf |date=1 November 2018 }}
* Warner, Geoffrey. "Ernest Bevin and British Foreign Policy, 1945–1951" in  ''The Diplomats, 1939–1979'' ed. by Gordon A. Craig and Francis L. Loewenheim. (Princeton UP, 1994) pp.&nbsp;103–134  [http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctv8pz9nc.9 online]
* Weiler, Peter. "Britain and the First Cold War: Revisionist Beginnings," ''Twentieth Century British History'' (1998) 9#1 pp 127–138 reviews arguments of revisionist historians who downplay Bevin's personal importance in starting the Cold War and instead emphasise British efforts to use the Cold War to perpetuate imperial regional interests, through containment of radical national movements, and to oppose American aggrandisement.
* Williams, Francis. ''Ernest Bevin: Portrait of a Great Englishman'' (Hutchinson, 1952) [https://archive.org/details/ernestbevinportr0000fran online]
* Wrigley, Chris. "Bevin, Ernest (1881–1951)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, January 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31872, accessed 2 June 2013] {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/31872}}; brief scholarly biography

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite web |url=http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=420 |last1=Chanter |first1=Alan |last2=Chen |first2=Peter |title=WW2DB: Ernest Bevin |year=2007 |access-date=4 November 2007}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-ernest-bevin | Ernest-Bevin }}
* Peter Day. [https://web.archive.org/web/20181025062553/http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12205.htm Jewish terrorists plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin in 1946], [[The Sunday Times]], 5 March 2006.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080513191345/http://www.rogersteer.com/ed-article1.asp From the hedgerows of Devon to the Foreign Office] – Roger Steer.
* [http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people/Bevin,+Ernest Annotated bibliography for Ernest Bevin from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505014133/http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people%2FBevin%2C+Ernest |date=5 May 2010 }}
* [https://mrc.epexio.com/records/EBE Catalogue of Bevin's trade union papers], held at the [[Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick]]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{NPG name}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001674}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Harry Nathan]]}}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Wandsworth Central]]
       | years = [[1940 Wandsworth Central by-election|1940]]–[[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]}}
{{s-non| reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{Succession box
 | title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Woolwich East (UK Parliament constituency)|Woolwich East]]
 | years = [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]–[[1951 Woolwich East by-election|1951]]
 | before = [[George Hicks (trade unionist)|George Hicks]]
 | after = [[Christopher Mayhew]]
}}
{{s-npo|union}}
{{succession box|title=[[Trades Union Congress]] representative to the [[American Federation of Labour]]|years=1914|with=[[Charles Ammon]]|before=[[Thomas Greenall]] and [[Ivor Gwynne]]|after=[[Harry Gosling]] and [[William Whitefield]]}}
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl| title = General Secretary of the [[Transport and General Workers' Union]]
 | years = 1922–1945}}
{{s-aft| after = [[Arthur Deakin]]}}
{{succession box|title=National Secretary (Docks Group) of the [[Transport and General Workers' Union]]|years=1922–1929|before=''New position''|after=[[Dan Milford]]}}
{{Succession box
 | title = [[President of the Trades Union Congress]]
 | years = 1937
 | before = [[Alan Findlay|Allan Findlay]]
 | after = [[Herbert Elvin (trade unionist)|Herbert Elvin]]
}}
{{s-off}}
{{Succession box
 | title = [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour and National Service]]
 | years = 1940–1945
 | before = [[Ernest Brown (MP)|Ernest Brown]]
 | after = [[Rab Butler]]
}}
{{Succession box| title=[[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Foreign Secretary]] | before=[[Anthony Eden]] | after=[[Herbert Morrison]] | years=1945–1951}}
{{Succession box| title=[[Lord Privy Seal]] | before=[[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|The Viscount Addison]] | after=[[Richard Stokes (politician)|Richard Stokes]] | years=1951}}
{{S-end}}
{{Foreign Secretary}}
{{Churchill War Ministry}}
{{Transport and General Workers' Union}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevin, Ernest}}
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