William Henry Beveridge (1879-1963) was author of the ‘Beveridge Report’ (Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services, 1942), which proposed a comprehensive ‘cradle to the grave’ scheme of social insurance covering all citizens irrespective of income, and which shaped much subsequent British legislation. Beveridge also wrote two influential reports on unemployment (1909 and 1944) and directed labour exchanges while a civil servant at the Board of Trade. See also welfare state.
— Stewart Wood
