Constituency : Berwick-upon-Tweed 1944-5
William took over at Berwick following the death of George Grey. He had only recently joined the Liberal party asfter a long association with the Fabians. He easily defeated an Independent challenger.
William was born in India to a British civil servant. He was educated at Charterhouse and Oxford. He became a solicitor but was more interested in writing on social questions. He became friendly with the Webbs and quickly became an expert on unemployment insurance. Churchill brought him into the Board of Trade to work on labour exchanges and national insurance. He worked on manpower during World War One. He was knighted and became permanent secretary to the Ministry of Food. A year later he left to become director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He published a number of influential works on economic and political questions. William was an agnostic and a keen advocate of eugenics suggesting schemes to encourage middle class parents to have more children. His departure from the School in 1937 was partly down to arguments over eugenics. He became Master of University College, Oxford.In 1940 he joined Ernest Bevin at the Ministry of Labour but the two men did not get on and William was diverted to less important work. In 1941 Bevin engineered his switch to the Ministry of Health to work on social insurance.William's report Social Insurance and Allied Services published in 1942 became the cornerstone for the formation of the National Health Service and the post-war welfare state. William's ideas rested on the idea of full employment , further expounded in his book Full Employment in a Free Society in 1944.
William was part of the Radical Action grouping in parliament.
In 1945 William was defeated due to the intervention of a Labour candidate. The following year he was created Baron Beveridge. He later led the Liberals in the Lords.
He died in 1963 aged 84.
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