Somerville Hastings

Somerville Hastings FRCS MP (March 4, 1878 – 7 July 1967) was a British surgeon and Labour Party politician.^[1]

The son of the Reverend H G Hastings, he was born in Warminster, Wiltshire.^[2] He was educated at Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire), University College (receiving the gold and silver medals for botany) and the Middlesex Hospital, London. ^[2] ^[1] He qualified as MRCS LRCP in 1902, FRCS in 1904 and MB (London) in 1908.^[2]

He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Reading, in Berkshire, from 1923 to 1924, and from 1929 to 1931. He returned to the House of Commons at the 1945 general election as MP for Barking, holding the seat until his retirement at the 1959 general election.

Hastings was founder President of the Socialist Medical Association (SMA) 1930-51.^[3] He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, followed by work as an aural surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital. He was a Member of the London County Council for fourteen years.

He was the author of

Toadstools at Home 1906
Wild Flowers at Home 1906
Alpine Plants At Home 1908
Summer Flowers Of The High Alps 1910
First Aid for the Trenches 1917
The Future of Medical Practice in England The Lancet 1928
Fabian Tracts no 241 A National Physiological Minimum January 1934, and no 359
The Future of Medical Practice: A Personal View 1942
The Development of the Health Services^[4] February 1943 (and many other leaflets and tracts for the Socialist Medical Association)
The Family And The Social Services with Peggy Jay February 1965

References

^ ^a ^b ODNB article by John Stewart, 'Hastings, Somerville (1878–1967)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 8 Oct 2007
^ ^a ^b ^c "Obituary: Somerville Hastings Former Labour MP". The Times: p. 12. 8 July 1967.
^ http://www.sochealth.co.uk/history/Somerville.htm
^ http://www.sochealth.co.uk/history/devHS.htm

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Somerville Hastings

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Edward Cadogan	Member of Parliament for Reading 1923–1924	Succeeded by Herbert Williams
Preceded by Herbert Williams	Member of Parliament for Reading 1929–1931	Succeeded by Alfred Bakewell Howitt
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Barking 1945–1959	Succeeded by Tom Driberg
Political offices
Preceded by Richard Coppock	Chairman of the London County Council 1944 – 1945	Succeeded by Charles Robertson

Persondata
Name	Hastings, Somerville
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 4, 1878
Place of birth
Date of death	7 July 1967
Place of death