Items19The creator’s order
  1. 1Robert PeelRobert PeelBorn 5 Feb 1788Before his famous premiership, Peel spent years as Home Secretary doing unglamorous reform: consolidating hundreds of criminal statutes, removing the death penalty from over a hundred offences and, in 1829, creating the Metropolitan Police. The design choices mattered most: a uniformed civilian…0i
  2. 2William Edward ForsterWilliam Edward ForsterBorn 11 Jul 1818Forster's Elementary Education Act of 1870 did not abolish church schools; it filled the gaps between them. Elected school boards could build and run schools wherever voluntary provision fell short, paid for from local rates, and within a decade thousands of board schools had been built. It was a…0i
  3. 3Herbert HooverHerbert HooverBorn 10 Aug 1874Hoover's presidency is remembered for the Depression, but as Commerce Secretary from 1921 to 1928 he was one of the most effective administrators in American government. He drove standardisation of everything from bricks and tyres to screw threads, cutting waste across industry, organised the…0i
  4. 4John WheatleyJohn WheatleyLabour's first government lasted less than a year in 1924, but Wheatley, its health minister, used it to pass the Housing (Financial Provisions) Act. It gave councils a long-term subsidy to build homes for rent rather than sale, and he negotiated with building unions and employers to expand the…0i
  5. 5Frances PerkinsFrances PerkinsBorn 10 Apr 1880The first woman in an American cabinet, Perkins served as Labor Secretary for all twelve years of Roosevelt's presidency and chaired the Committee on Economic Security that drafted the Social Security Act. She also steered the Fair Labor Standards Act through, with its minimum wage, maximum hours…0i
  6. 6Herbert MorrisonHerbert MorrisonBorn 3 Jan 1888As Transport Minister Morrison designed the London Passenger Transport Board, finally created in 1933, which merged the Underground, buses and trams into a single public corporation run at arm's length from ministers. That 'Morrisonian' model became the template for the nationalised industries…0i
  7. 7Ernest BevinErnest BevinA trade union leader brought into Churchill's war cabinet without a parliamentary seat, Bevin ran the Ministry of Labour from 1940 to 1945. He organised the mobilisation of almost the whole adult population, directing workers into industry, sending conscripts to the mines as 'Bevin Boys' and…0i
  8. 8Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of WooltonFrederick Marquis, 1st Earl of WooltonBorn 23 Aug 1883A department store executive appointed Minister of Food in 1940, Woolton ran Britain's wartime rationing system. Its fairness was the point: points rationing gave choice, and priority supplies of milk, orange juice and cod liver oil went to children and expectant mothers. Wartime nutrition actually…0i
  9. 9Rab ButlerRab ButlerBorn 9 Dec 1902Butler's Education Act of 1944 made secondary education free and universal in England and Wales, raised the leaving age to 15 and created the Ministry of Education. Much of his skill went into months of quiet negotiation with the Anglican and Catholic churches over the future of their schools,…0i
  10. 10Clement AttleeClement AttleeBorn 3 Jan 1883Attlee was famously unflashy, and his talent was chairing. His 1945 cabinet contained huge and quarrelsome personalities, Bevin, Bevan, Morrison, Cripps and Dalton, and he kept them delivering: the National Health Service, national insurance, nationalisation of coal and rail, Indian independence…0i