This year, 2014, marks the 50^th anniversary of the creation of the Welsh Office. The first secretary of state for Wales, appointed by Labour prime minister Harold Wilson in October 1964, was James Griffiths. James (‘Jim’) Griffiths, a deeply committed campaigner for devolution, is one of the most under-rated of Welsh politicians.

As minister for national insurance from 1945-50 in Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government, Griffiths was one of the major architects of Britain’s welfare state. The National Insurance Act of 1946, which he piloted through the Commons, set the framework of postwar social security in Britain. The act introduced compulsory national insurance contributions, in return for which there would be pensions at age 65 for men, and age 60 for women; sickness benefit; and unemployment benefit.

The National Insurance Act of 1911, introduced by another Welshman, the then chancellor, David Lloyd George, had established the national insurance principle, but had a very limited scope. The 1946 act created a more comprehensive welfare state, aimed at tackling the five ‘giant evils’ of disease, want, ignorance, squalor and idleness Sir William Beveridge had identified in his report of 1942. The National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946 added compensation for accidents at work, and, later, the National Assistance Act of 1948 covered those who might fall through the national insurance net, and made compulsory local authority provision of accommodation for those in need.

Born near Ammanford in Carmarthenshire, Griffiths became a miner at the age of 13. He rose to become secretary of the Ammanford trades and labour council in 1916. As with many South Wales miners and trade unionists of the era, he studied at the Central Labour College in London. From 1934 to 1936 he was president of the South Wales Miners’ Federation. He was an elected a member of parliament at the Llanelli by-election of March 1936.

In 1950, Attlee rewarded Griffiths for his work as minister of national insurance with promotion to the post of colonial secretary. Later, with Labour back in opposition, Griffiths defeated Aneurin Bevan in the deputy leadership election of February 1956, by 141 votes to 111 (only MPs voted under the party rules then), a post he held until Bevan succeeded him after Labour’s general election defeat in October 1959.

In 1979, four years after Griffiths’ death, the Welsh Labour party and his Llanelli constituency Labour party commissioned a brief 119-page appreciation, James Griffiths and His Times, ‘as a recognition of our lasting indebtedness to James Griffiths for his toil, enthusiasm and wisdom’ (J. Beverley Smith, et al, James Griffiths and His Times (Ferndale, Rhondda: Labour Party Wales and the Llanelli Constituency Labour Party, 1979)). Kenneth O Morgan devoted his Welsh Political Archive lecture of 1988 to a comparison between Griffiths and Bevan: The Red Dragon and the Red Flag: The Cases of James Griffiths and Aneurin Bevan: The Welsh Political Archive Lecture 1988: 4 November 1988 (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales Press, 1989). Yet, for such a significant figure – not only in Welsh history, but in British history – it is very surprising that there has been no major biography written about Griffiths. It is high time such a book was written: Griffiths’ determination and effectiveness as a politician deserves wide recognition.

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Nick Thomas-Symonds is the author of Attlee: A Life in Politics. He writes the Labour history column for Progress and tweets @NThomasSymonds