INTRODUCING THE MINISTER OF HEALTH The Rt. Hon. Kenneth Robinson, P.C., M.P., is no stranger i to readers of Mental Health.
Prom 1958 until his appointment as Minister of Health, he Was one of the N.A.M.H.'s ViceFrom 1956-1959 he i Presidents. shared the Joint Chairmanship I ?f the Public Information Committee with the Earl of FeverI sham, and was its Chairman from 1959-1962. Mr. Robinson also took the Chair at the Steering Committee set up to consider the formation ?f the Mental Health Film I Council, and was an individual i Member of that Council in 1962,
I
,
I '963. The
new Minister was literally of and into the medical / World. His mother was a nurse 'n Thanet, Kent, where she met his father, the late Clarence Robinson, a doctor. Family of I tradition continues, for one Kenneth Robinson's nieces is low a nurse, trained at the
!
lliilli; ill 1
?is
is? iii??
horn
Acknowledgments
Middlesex Hospital.
to
the C.O.I.
Mr. Robinson was born in March 1911 at Warrington, Lancashire, and was educated at Oundle School, Northamptonshire. From 1927 to 1940 he was an
broker at "jsurance '941-1946, joining
Lloyd's of London, and served in the Royal Navy from an ordinary seaman and being demobilised as a Lieut.-
as
^ommander. He served
St. Pancras Borough Council from 1945-1949, working as a for the last three of those years, and was then elected as for St. Pancras North at a by-election, becoming Government Whip in '950-51. He has been the principal spokesman for the Labour Party on health in the House of Commons since 1961, and a member of the NorthRegional Hospital Board since 1951. He has also been Chairman of the board's Mental Health Sub-Committee. Two of his pamphlets?the Fabian Society's Policy for Mental Health (now ?ut of print) and the N.A.M.H.'s Patterns of Care: A study of provisions for mentally disordered in France, Holland, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.? are typical of his careful examination of contemporary problems. His membership of the Advisory Council of the National Corporation for yld People and of the Executive Committee of the National Trust, as well as his lr\terest in colonial affairs?some of his earliest Parliamentary Questions dealt colonial matters?and the arts reflect the broad perspective of his approach to people. So do his hobbies of reading, music and overseas travel. Kenneth Robinson will bring to the Ministry of Health much humanity, *een knowledge, wide understanding and an absence of complacency. Everyone is concerned with the mental health services will watch his progress with on
Company secretary
^?P. patters west
^ith
^ho c'?se
interest.
259
Prom 1958 until his appointment as Minister of Health, he Was one of the N.A.M.H.'s ViceFrom 1956-1959 he i Presidents. shared the Joint Chairmanship I ?f the Public Information Committee with the Earl of FeverI sham, and was its Chairman from 1959-1962. Mr. Robinson also took the Chair at the Steering Committee set up to consider the formation ?f the Mental Health Film I Council, and was an individual i Member of that Council in 1962,
I
,
I '963. The
new Minister was literally of and into the medical / World. His mother was a nurse 'n Thanet, Kent, where she met his father, the late Clarence Robinson, a doctor. Family of I tradition continues, for one Kenneth Robinson's nieces is low a nurse, trained at the
!
lliilli; ill 1
?is
is? iii??
horn
Acknowledgments
Middlesex Hospital.
to
the C.O.I.
Mr. Robinson was born in March 1911 at Warrington, Lancashire, and was educated at Oundle School, Northamptonshire. From 1927 to 1940 he was an
broker at "jsurance '941-1946, joining
Lloyd's of London, and served in the Royal Navy from an ordinary seaman and being demobilised as a Lieut.-
as
^ommander. He served
St. Pancras Borough Council from 1945-1949, working as a for the last three of those years, and was then elected as for St. Pancras North at a by-election, becoming Government Whip in '950-51. He has been the principal spokesman for the Labour Party on health in the House of Commons since 1961, and a member of the NorthRegional Hospital Board since 1951. He has also been Chairman of the board's Mental Health Sub-Committee. Two of his pamphlets?the Fabian Society's Policy for Mental Health (now ?ut of print) and the N.A.M.H.'s Patterns of Care: A study of provisions for mentally disordered in France, Holland, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.? are typical of his careful examination of contemporary problems. His membership of the Advisory Council of the National Corporation for yld People and of the Executive Committee of the National Trust, as well as his lr\terest in colonial affairs?some of his earliest Parliamentary Questions dealt colonial matters?and the arts reflect the broad perspective of his approach to people. So do his hobbies of reading, music and overseas travel. Kenneth Robinson will bring to the Ministry of Health much humanity, *een knowledge, wide understanding and an absence of complacency. Everyone is concerned with the mental health services will watch his progress with on
Company secretary
^?P. patters west
^ith
^ho c'?se
interest.
259
