11 Facts About Henry Willink

Henry Willink was educated as a King's Scholar at Eton College, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1912, and at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Henry Willink received the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

Henry Willink was elected as Member of Parliament for Croydon North in a wartime by-election on 19 June 1940.

Henry Willink was made a privy counsellor in 1943, the year he became Minister of Health, a role in which he served until the Conservatives lost the 1945 general election.

The principal difference was that Henry Willink's plan talked of a "publicly organised" rather than a "publicly provided" service, and Labour's plan brought hospitals into full national ownership.

Henry Willink kept his seat at the 1945 general election by just 607 votes over Labour's Marion Billson.

Henry Willink resigned from Parliament on 29 January 1948, and the subsequent by-election was won resoundingly by Conservative Fred Harris, with a majority of almost 12,000 votes, despite a ballot of high-profile candidates.

In 1938 Henry Willink stood as a Conservative in Ipswich to replace the incumbent MP John Ganzoni, but lost to Richard Stokes.

Henry Willink chaired the steering committee leading to the formation of the Royal College of General Practitioners, starting in 1952.

In 1957 Henry Willink served as Chairman of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Future Numbers of Medical Practitioners and Intakes of Medical Students.

Henry Willink was made a baronet, of Dingle Bank in the City of Liverpool, in 1957, and was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Melbourne in 1955.