Beveridge, William Henry

Beveridge, William Henry, 1st Baron Beveridge of Tuggal (1879-1963), British economist, born in Rangpur (now in Pakistan), and educated at the University of Oxford. He was made director of labour exchanges for the city of London in 1908. From 1919 to 1937 he was director of the London School of Economics and from 1937 to 1944 was master of University College, Oxford. Beveridge is particularly noted for the Beveridge Report, a blueprint for social security and a welfare state. He was elected a Liberal member of the House of Commons in 1944, and in November of that year the House endorsed a government motion for an extensive social insurance plan-the Beveridge Report in a modified form. Beveridge was knighted in 1919 and created baron in 1946. Among his published works are Planning Under Socialism (1936), Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942), Full Employment in a Free Society (1944), The Evidence for Voluntary Action (1949), and A Defence of Free Learning (1959).