Bevin was Foreign Secretary. He collapsed with a heart attack just after leaving the House of Commons. In OTL he recovered, but what if he had died? Would Clement Attlee have moved Hugh Dalton from Chancellor of the Exchequer to Foreign Secretary? Before Attlee appointed his cabinet in late July 1945, Bevin had expected to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dalton Foreign Secretary. Attlee wrote in autobiographical notes in 1950 or 1951 that 'I was not convinced that Dalton's temperament really fitted him for the Foreign Office, but as Chancellor of the Exchequer Bevin would certainly have got into controversy with Morrison.' (1)
So if Bevin had died in July 1946, who would Attlee have appointed Foreign Secretary instead of Dalton? The other possibilities would have been Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, or Herbert Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and leader of the House of Commons. In fact Morrison became Foreign Secretary in March 1951. Whoever Attlee appointed Foreign Secretary, there would have been other cabinet changes.
How would British foreign policy have been different without Bevin as Foreign Secretary? Such as regards Palestine, relations with the Soviet Union, and other issues.
(1) Quoted in Age Of Hope: Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain , by Richard Toye, London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2023.
So if Bevin had died in July 1946, who would Attlee have appointed Foreign Secretary instead of Dalton? The other possibilities would have been Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, or Herbert Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and leader of the House of Commons. In fact Morrison became Foreign Secretary in March 1951. Whoever Attlee appointed Foreign Secretary, there would have been other cabinet changes.
How would British foreign policy have been different without Bevin as Foreign Secretary? Such as regards Palestine, relations with the Soviet Union, and other issues.
(1) Quoted in Age Of Hope: Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain , by Richard Toye, London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2023.