Clement Attlee

The quiet chair of a forceful cabinet is the clearest starting point. As Britain's prime minister from 1945 to 1951, Attlee helped turn a crowded reform programme into legislation, including the NHS and a wider social-insurance system. Aneurin Bevan and other ministers did essential work; Attlee's contribution was organising a government capable of delivering it. Currency crises and prolonged rationing make this a study of priorities under constraint, rather than effortless post-war progress.