Clement Attlee - Life and Career

Life and Career

From 1906 to 1909, Attlee worked as manager of Haileybury House, a charitable club for working class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school. Prior to this, his political views had been conservative. However, he was shocked by the poverty and deprivation he saw while working with slum children. He came to the view that private charity would never be sufficient to alleviate poverty, and only massive action and income redistribution by the state would have any serious effect. This sparked up a process of political evolution that saw him develop into a full-fledged supporter of socialism. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1908, and became active in London local politics.

In 1909, he worked briefly as secretary for Beatrice Webb. Between 1909 and 1910, he worked as secretary for Toynbee Hall. In 1911 he took up a government job as an "official explainer", touring the country to explain David Lloyd George's National Insurance Act. He spent the summer of that year touring Essex and Somerset on a bicycle, explaining the Act at public meetings.

Attlee became a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1912, but promptly applied for an army officer commission following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.