author
Somerville Hastings
1878–1967
A surgeon who carried his medical experience into public life, he became an early Labour champion of a state health service and helped lay the groundwork for the NHS. His story brings together hospital work, social reform, and decades of parliamentary service.
1 Audiobook
Summer Flowers of the High Alps
by Somerville Hastings
About the author
Born in Warminster, Wiltshire, on 4 March 1878, Somerville Hastings studied at Wycliffe College, University College London, and the Middlesex Hospital. He built a distinguished career as a surgeon, especially in ear, nose, and throat work, and earned the FRCS. Alongside medicine, he also developed strong interests in public service and reform.
Hastings was both a doctor and a politician, serving as a Labour MP for Reading in the 1920s and early 1930s, and later for Barking from 1945 to 1959. He is especially remembered for linking medicine with politics in a practical way, arguing that healthcare should be organized for the public good rather than left to patchy local provision.
He also played a major role in socialist medical politics, becoming the founding president of the Socialist Medical Association in 1930. That work helped push the idea of a national health service into mainstream Labour policy well before the NHS was created. He died on 7 July 1967, leaving a legacy as one of the doctors who helped shape modern British healthcare.