Group including Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Gaitskell and Denis Healey, Baron Healey

Identify sitters

by Central Press
bromide press print, 29 August 1959
9 in. x 7 3/4 in. (230 mm x 197 mm) image size
Transferred from Evening Standard Library, 1983
Photographs Collection
NPG x184223

Sittersback to top

Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960), Editor of 'Tribune' and Labour politician; MP for Ebbw Vale and Minister of Health; husband of Jennie Lee. Sitter associated with 34 portraits. Identify
(Anna) Dora Gaitskell (née Creditor), Baroness Gaitskell (1901-1989), Labour politician; wife of Hugh Gaitskell. Sitter in 5 portraits. Identify
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (1906-1963), Politician; leader of the Labour party. Sitter in 29 portraits. Identify
Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey (1917-2015), Labour politician; Secretary of State for Defence and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sitter in 17 portraits. Identify
Edna May (née Edmunds), Lady Healey (1918-2010), Author, radio and television writer and broadcaster; wife of Denis Healey, Baron Healey. Sitter in 4 portraits. Identify

Artistback to top

Central Press, Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 103 portraits.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1959back to top

Current affairs

Harold Macmillan wins the general election with an increased majority, returning to office as Conservative prime minister. The victory was the result of perceived economic improvement under the Conservative government, and his (misquoted) boast: 'you've never had it so good.' During his premiership he earned the nickname 'Supermac', coined by cartoonist, Victor 'Vicky' Weisz.

Art and science

Claudia Jones organises the first West Indian-style carnival in the country, starting the tradition of the annual Notting Hill carnival. The event was a response to the race riots of 1958, and an attempt to celebrate West Indian culture and help overcome racial prejudice by giving the whole community the opportunity to join in the event.

International

Fidel Castro becomes leader of Cuba. After defeating the American-backed Batista government, Castro's revolutionary army arrived in Havana on 8th January where Castro proclaimed himself Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Within a month, Prime Minister José Miró Cardona had resigned, and Castro took over.
In Tibet, an uprising against Chinese rule is brutally crushed, and the Dalai Lama flees to India, beginning his long exile.

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Jane Williams

28 July 2016, 02:31

Also in photo are Edna Healey, wife of Denis Healey and Dora Gaitskell, wife of Hugh Gaitskell. Hugh Gaitskell was Labour Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition and Aneurin Bevan was his Shadow Foreign Secretary. They were flying to the Soviet Union to meet with Nikita Khrushchev and other Russian leaders in Moscow in early September 1959. Their visit was cut short when Harold Macmillan, the British Premier, and leader of the Conservative Party announced a General Election to be held on 8 October 1959. Labour lost, Nye Bevan died on 6 July 1960 and Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963.

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