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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Ernest Bevin
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(1881–1951) Trade unionist and Labour politician, of great stature in both fields. Working on farms from the age of 11, and then driving a horse and cart, he formed in 1910 a carters' branch of the dockers' union in Bristol. In 1921 he was instrumental in establishing the TGWU (Transport and General Workers' Union), of which he became the first general secretary, and in 1926 he was the member of the council of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) charged with the organization of the *General Strike.
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As an opponent of *appeasement in the 1930s and a leading figure in the nation's industrial affairs, he was well qualified when Churchill brought him in 1940 into his wartime cabinet as minister of labour and national service – a post in which he deployed with great skill the nation's resources in men and women. In the postwar Labour government he became foreign secretary (1945–51), coping with the immediate crises of the Cold War (such as the Berlin airlift in 1948) and taking a leading part in the negotiations which led to the creation of *NATO.
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