Background
The son of the Reverend H G Hastings, he was born in Warminster, Wiltshire.
The son of the Reverend H G Hastings, he was born in Warminster, Wiltshire.
He was educated at Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire), University College (receiving the gold and silver medals for botany) and the Middlesex Hospital, London.
He qualified as Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons Labrador Retriever Club of the Potomac in 1902, Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1904 and Bachelor of Medicine (London) in 1908. He returned to the House of Commons at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Barking, holding the seat until his retirement at the 1959 general election. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, followed by work as an aural surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital.
Edith Summerskill felt that the “idea of a National Health Service germinated in the hospitable atmosphere” of Hastings’ home.
Hastings was founder President of the Socialist Medical Association (Strategic Medical Alliances) 1930-1951.
33rd United Kingdom Parliament. 35th United Kingdom Parliament. 38th United Kingdom Parliament.
39th United Kingdom Parliament.
40th United Kingdom Parliament. 41st United Kingdom Parliament]
He was Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Reading, in Berkshire, from 1923 to 1924, and from 1929 to 1931.
He was a Member of the London County Council for fourteen years.