author
Somerville Hastings
1878–1967
A surgeon who brought medicine and politics together, he helped push the idea that healthcare should be available to everyone. His career stretched from the operating theatre to Parliament, with a lasting role in the early movement for a national health service.
1 Audiobook
Summer Flowers of the High Alps
by Somerville Hastings
About the author
Born in Warminster, Wiltshire, in 1878, he trained at University College London and the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying as a surgeon and building a distinguished medical career. He became known in ear, nose, and throat surgery and earned the FRCS early in his career.
Public life became just as important to him as medicine. He served as a Labour MP for Reading in the 1920s and later for Barking from 1945 to 1959, and he also played a major part in London local government, including a term as chairman of the London County Council.
He is especially remembered for linking socialist politics with public health reform. As founder president of the Socialist Medical Association, he argued for a state-organized health service well before the NHS was created, making him an important early voice in the fight for universal healthcare. He died in 1967.