William Beveridge

William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, KCB (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician. He was a progressive and social reformer. He played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report) was the basis for the welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.^[1]

The Right Honourable The Lord Beveridge KCB
Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed
In office 17 October 1944 – 15 June 1945
Preceded by	George Charles Grey
Succeeded by	Robert Thorp
Majority	7,523 (74.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1879-03-05)5 March 1879 Rangpur City, Bengal, India (now Bangladesh)
Died	16 March 1963(1963-03-16) (aged 84) Oxford, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Janet Philip ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 1959)​
Parents	Henry Beveridge (father) Annette Akroyd (mother)
Education	Charterhouse School
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Economist politician
Known for	Work towards founding the welfare state in the United Kingdom

He built his career as an expert on unemployment insurance. He served on the Board of Trade as Director of the newly created labour exchanges. Later he was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Food. He was Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1919 until 1937, when he was elected Master of University College, Oxford.

Beveridge published widely on unemployment and social security. He was elected in a 1944 by-election as a Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed. When he lost in the 1945 general election, he was elevated to the House of Lords. He was the leader of the Liberal peers.

Works

• Unemployment: A problem of industry, 1909. online (Archive.org)
• 'Wages in the Winchester Manors', Economic History Review, Vol. VII, 1936–37.
• Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century, 1939.
• Social Insurance and Allied Services, 1942. (The Beveridge Report)^[2]
• The Pillars of Security and Other War-Time Essays and Addresses, 1943, republished 2014.^[3]
• Full Employment in a Free Society, 1944.
• The Economics of Full Employment, 1944.
• Why I am a Liberal, 1945.
• The Price of Peace, 1945.
• Power and Influence, 1953.
• "India Called Them," George Allen & Unwin, 1947
• Plan for Britain: A Collection of Essays prepared for the Fabian Society by G. D. H. Cole, Aneurin Bevan, Jim Griffiths, L. F. Easterbrook, Sir William Beveridge, and Harold J. Laski (Not illustrated with 127 text pages).^[4]
• 'Westminster Wages in the Manorial Era', Economic History Review, 2nd Series, Vol. VIII, 1955.