Book review: the birth of the NHS

Hold On Edna! by Aneira Thomas “Hold on Edna!” cried the medical team as Edna Rees was about to give birth to her seventh child late on 4 July 1948. If only she could “hold on” for just a few minutes more, then the child would be born on 5 July – the day that the National Health Service came into being. Edna and her husband Willie wouldn’t have to pay for a midwife – as they had with their previous children. If mother or child was ill, they wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of calling a doctor – let alone the price of medicine. It was the beginning of a new era in Britain: by successfully ‘holding on’, Edna gave birth to the first baby born in the NHS. And now Aneira Thomas – named by Edna and Willie after NHS architect and Welsh compatriot Nye Bevan – has told the story of her family in a fascinating book. That story begins in 1835, in Wells, Somerset, with Torian Churchouse, Aneira’s great, great grandmother on her mother’s side. Her father, a farmer, had died shortly after her birth, leaving his destitute family to face the grim reality of the workhouse. Tory, as she was known, grew up inside its walls, only leaving as a 19-year-old to marry Huw Hodges, a horse dealer for whom it was love at first sight when he spotted her serving on a workhouse stall at the city’s summer fair. After Tory’s death, four of her sons set off to walk to Wales to find work. There, Robert married Jemima. Later, their son Thomas married Esther Edmunds, with ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article aneira thomas books NHS Source Type: news