Sir Henry Willink , 1st Baronet Sir Henry Urmston Willink , 1st Baronet PC , MC , KC ( 7 March 1894 – 20 July 1973 ) , was a British politician and public servant . He is best known for his service in the Conservative Party as Minister of Health from 1943 - 1945 in the wartime Coalition Government of the United Kingdom . He proposed many of the bases of the National Health Service later taken up by the Labour Party . Early life and wartime service . Willink was born in Liverpool . He was educated as a King ' s Scholar at Eton College , where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1912 , and at Trinity College , Cambridge . Before he could take his Cambridge degree he volunteered for service in the Royal Field Artillery during the First World War . When only 22 , Willink commanded a battery at the 1916 Battle of the Somme . Willink received the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre . Post - war , he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1920 , was appointed to the rank of King ' s Counsel in 1935 and became a Bencher in 1942 . Political career . Willink was elected as Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Croydon North in a wartime by - election on 19 June 1940 . There was only one other candidate , an independent , who received a very small vote . In 1940 he was appointed Special Commissioner for the homeless in London . Willink was made a Privy Counsellor in 1943 , the year he became Minister of Health . Willink served in this role until the Conservatives lost the 1945 general election . He , with John Hawton , was responsible for the 1944 White Paper , following the Beveridge Report , called " A National Health Service " . It proposed the creation of a fully comprehensive , universal healthcare system , free of charge and available to all citizens irrespective of means . When Labour came into office in 1945 , they presented their own plan in preference to Willink ' s , although they had supported it up until that point . The principal difference was that Willink ' s plan talked of a " publicly organised " rather than a " publicly provided " service , whereas Labour ' s plan brought hospitals into full national ownership . Bevan did however make concessions to General practitioner s . Willink kept his seat at the 1945 general election by just 607 votes from Labour ' s Marion Billson . Labour ' s David Rees - Williams had taken the other Croydon seat . It was rumoured that Billson lost because sacks of servicemen ' s votes were left uncounted in the Town Hall basement . Willink resigned from Parliament on 29 January 1948 , and the subsequent by - election was resoundingly won by Conservative Fred Harris against high - profile candidates . Public service . Willink continued to serve in public positions . In 1948 , he was appointed Master of Magdalene College , Cambridge , a post he held until 1966 . From 1953 until 1955 he was also Vice - Chancellor of the University of Cambridge . He chaired the steering committee leading to the formation of the Royal College of General Practitioners , starting 1952 . Willink was later to describe his role as Chairman of that Steering Committee as " one of the very best projects with which I have ever been involved in my life . " In 1957 Willink served as Chairman of the Inter - Departmental Committee on the Future Numbers of Medical Practitioners and Intakes of Medical Students . The committee concluded that too many doctors were being trained and proposed a 12 % reduction . This was soon realised to be a misjudgement . From 1955 to 1971 he held the office of Dean of Arches , the senior ecclesiastical judge of England . He 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 . His papers are held at Churchill College , Cambridge .