Hal Summers

Henry Forbes Summers, also known as Hal Summers (born 18 August 1911, Harrogate, Yorkshire) was a senior British civil servant. He has published several volumes of poetry.

Education Fettes College, Edinburgh; Trinity College, Oxford.

Career He joined the Ministry of Health in 1935. He was Private Secretary to Aneurin Bevan while he was Minister of Health, during the passage of the National Health Bill, 1945.

He moved to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government on its creation and was promoted to Under-Secretary in 1955. This ministry was later absorbed into the [[Department of the Environment]]. He was made a CB in 1961 and retired in 1971.

Publications

• Smoke After Flame, 1944
• Hinterland, 1947
• Poems in Pamphlet, 1952
• Tomorrow is my Love, 1978
• The Burning Book, 1982
• Brevities, 1991.

His most popular poems include "My Old Cat", "The Beginners" and "The Seed".