ABSTRACT
On 22 February 1942, Arthur Greenwood was dismissed from office, and the responsibility for reconstruction planning passed to Sir Willam Jowitt, later Lord Chancellor in the Attlee Government. Jowitt sent a message to the Beveridge Committee via his representative, Mary Hamilton, stressing his high opinion of the committee’s role and hoping that the report would be available by the end of the year. Beveridge stated that he planned to complete his report before that and was confident that his other project on fuel rationing would not delay matters. Although Beveridge started writing his draft report in June, in a sense, the composition of the report was an evolutionary process, which started with his two major papers in the winter of 1941–42. Beveridge’s initial ideas were subjected to the scrutiny of his departmental colleagues, sometimes deflecting him from his provisional path and more often reinforcing his commitment to his key concepts.
