The debating club that helped shape NHS architect Aneurin Bevan's drive for power

The Query Club, a semi-secret society, played a significant role in shaping the ideas of Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS.

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Aneurin Bevan, the man who would go on to found the NHS and revolutionise housing for ordinary people, was part of a group of young debaters who met in a café in Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, in the winter of 1921. This was the launch of the Query Club, a semi-secret society that began examining socialist ideas and ended as a force which changed their town – and later, through their ideas, the whole country.

The Query Club members, including Bevan, gradually came to realise that if they wanted to change things, they had to be where the power was. They were from a working-class background and were familiar with the lack of control ordinary people had over their working lives and living conditions.

The Query Club was an organisation that was asking 'how do we actually achieve change here in Tredegar? How do we try to influence things?' according to Dr Nye Davies.

Bevan's involvement with the Query Club was significant, and it played a role in shaping his ideas and drive for power. He went on to become minister for health and housing two decades later, where he founded the NHS and revolutionised housing for ordinary people.

MI5 followed Bevan from around this time for 20 years, considering him a firebrand left-winger linked to prominent communists.