Somerville Hastings

Who was Somerville Hastings?

Somerville Hastings FRCS MP was a British surgeon and Labour Party politician.

The son of the Reverend H G Hastings, he was born in Warminster, Wiltshire. He was educated at Wycliffe College, University College and the Middlesex Hospital, London. He qualified as MRCS LRCP in 1902, FRCS in 1904 and MB in 1908.

He was Member of Parliament for Reading, in Berkshire, from 1923 to 1924, and from 1929 to 1931. He returned to the House of Commons at the 1945 general election as MP for Barking, holding the seat until his retirement at the 1959 general election.

Hastings was founder President of the Socialist Medical Association 1930-51. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, followed by work as an aural surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital. He was a Member of the London County Council for fourteen years.

He was the author of

Toadstools at Home 1906

Wild Flowers at Home 1906

Alpine Plants At Home 1908

Summer Flowers Of The High Alps 1910

First Aid for the Trenches 1917

The Future of Medical Practice in England The Lancet 1928

Fabian Tracts no 241 A National Physiological Minimum January 1934, and no 359