Reference list

Ministers and secretaries of state for health (1919–2009)

In June 1919 government health policy passed from the Local Government Board to a newly created Ministry of Health. From its formation, the minister for health (from 1968 a secretary of state) has held a seat in cabinet. In October 1968 the health ministry was incorporated with the Department of Social Security. It was known as the Department of Health and Social Security until July 1988 when it reverted to the Department of Health, headed by a secretary of state for health.


1919–1921	Christopher Addison (1869–1951)
1921–1922	Sir Alfred Moritz Mond, first baronet (1868–1930)
1922–1923	Sir Arthur Sackville Trevor Griffith-Boscawen (1865–1946)
1923 (March–Oct)	(Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
1923–1924	Sir William Joynson-Hicks, first baronet (1865–1932)
1924 (Jan–Oct)	John Wheatley (1869–1930)
1924–1929	(Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
1929–1931	Arthur Greenwood (1880–1954)
1931 (Aug–Nov)	(Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
1931–1935	Sir (Edward) Hilton Young (1879–1960)
1935–1938	Sir (Howard) Kingsley Wood (1881–1943)
1938–1940	Walter Elliot Elliot (1888–1958)
1940–1941	Malcolm John MacDonald (1901–1981)
1941–1943	(Alfred) Ernest Brown (1881–1962)
1943–1945	Henry Urmston Willink (1894–1973)
1945–1951	Aneurin [Nye] Bevan (1897–1960)
1951 (Jan–Oct)	Hilary Adair Marquand (1901–1972)
1951–1952	Harry Frederick Comfort Crookshank (1893–1961)
1952–1955	Iain Norman MacLeod (1913–1970)
1955–1957	(Robert) Hugh Turton (1903–1994)
1957 (Jan–Sept)	Dennis Forwood Vosper (1916–1968)
1957–1960	Derek Colclough Walker-Smith (1910–1992)
1960–1963	(John) Enoch Powell (1912–1998)
1963–1964	Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber (1920–2005)
1964–1968	Kenneth Robinson (1911–1996)
1968–1970	Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (1907–1974)
1970–1974	Sir Keith Sinjohn Joseph, second baronet (1918–1994)
1974–1976	Barbara Anne Castle (1910–2002)
1976–1979	David Hedley Ennals (1922–1995)
1979–1981	(Charles) Patrick Fleeming Jenkin (b. 1926)
1981–1987	(Peter) Norman Fowler (b. 1938)
1987–1988	John Edward Michael Moore (b. 1937)
1988–1990	Kenneth Harry Clarke (b. 1940)
1990–1992	William Arthur Waldegrave (b. 1946)
1992–1995	Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Bottomley (b. 1948)
1995–1997	Stephen James Dorrell (b. 1952)
1997–1999	Frank Gordon Dobson (b. 1940)
1999–2003	Alan Milburn (b. 1958)
2003–2005	John Reid (b. 1947)
2005–2007	Patricia Hope Hewitt (b. 1948)
2007–[2009]	Alan Arthur Johnson (b. 1950)
2009–2010	Andrew Murray Burnham (b.)