Growing up in the mining town of Tredegar, Aneurin Bevan witnessed firsthand the power of community solidarity. The town had pioneered its own health service through the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society, a mutual aid scheme funded by voluntary contributions from miners, railwaymen, and other local workers. For just a few pence a week, residents gained access to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and even a district nurse. It was a living example of collective care, built from the ground up by working people determined to look after one another.

In April 1926, just weeks before the start of the General Strike, Bevan joined the society’s management committee, a pivotal moment in his political and moral development. By then, the Tredegar scheme was among the most advanced in Britain, offering a blueprint for what healthcare could look like when rooted in fairness and community need. Bevan’s experience with the society profoundly shaped his vision for a national system, and in 1948, that vision became reality with the founding of the National Health Service. What began in Tredegar as a local act of compassion became one of the most transformative institutions in British history.

“We will Tredegarise you” when shaping the NHS. Bevan declared.