[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council.

  • Essex County Council
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    171/172 (page 171)
    I Ranking high amongst those to whom my thanks, and that of all concerned with the health of the people of Essex, are due are the legions of voluntary workers who have [i labouied unceasingly, sometimes m the face of discouragement, to supplement the I services provided officially. Those who worked at our clinics and the Women’s Volun- tary Services are in the forefront, as are also the British Red Cross Society and the St. t John Ambulance Brigade, ready at little notice to do such things as provide an am- bulance service, to give first aid training, run a maternity home or undertake any ) difficult job, the urgency of which could not await the slow grinding of official machinery. \ E i i 1 i a v i i 0 At the same time I must pay a tribute to the Medical Officers of Health of Local Sanitary Authorities and to all past and present members of the staff of the Public Health Department for the co-operation and assistance which they have always unfailingly given me. Some of them call for special mention. A name which comes instantly to mind is that of Lt.-Col. T. P. Puddicombe, D.S.O., who came to Essex in 1920 and was appointed as my first Deputy in 1930. He was in charge of the school health service and also of the mental deficiency service. His geniality, kindness, sympathy and consideration will long be remembered by those who came into contact with him, particularly a very wide circle of parents in Essex who have much reason to be grateful to him in his capacity as mental expert for his tact and kindness. Personally, 1 was most indebted to him for his great loyalty ; no matter how much we disagreed one could always depend upon him to be loyal to the extreme. i] 1 Dr. G. G. Stewart succeeded Dr. Puddicombe as Deputy in 1942, and throughout the difficult war years and the years of reconstruction thereafter gave me invaluable assistance. I am particularly grateful to him for the way in which he relieved me of much of the detailed work in connection with the preparation of the County Council’s Proposals under the National Health Service Act, 1946. Many other doctors who now hold important posts up and down the country served their apprenticeship in the Department whilst I was County Medical Officer. Dr. Rachael Elliott, Dr. Helen Campbell and Dr. R. M. Shaw are on the staff of the Ministry of Health. Dr. J. S. Bradshaw and Dr. Alfred Elliott are respectively County li Medical Officers of Health of West Sussex and Kent. Dr. James Graham is Deputy q Senior Medical Officer of the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and G Dr. W. A. M. Stewart is Deputy County Medical Officer of Health, Hertfordshire. 4 For some years Dr. F. E. Camps acted as the County Council’s Consultant Pathologist. G His genius and flair for field work investigation of outbreaks of infectious disease and )1 food poisoning, of which we regularly had the benefit at meetings of the Epidemiolo- i'^ gical Committee, no doubt stand him in good stead in the equally exacting woik which d he now undertakes in connection with the administration of justice. To mention all the individuals comprising the teams of doctors, nurses and d administrators who carried the burden of responsibility at the sanatoria and hospitals a would be wearisome to the reader. Dr. M. C. Wilkinson, Miss Clay and Miss M. Ruck jj at Black Notley, Dr. W. L. Yell at Broomfield and Dr. E. Miles at Oldchurch have j already been referred to. Other names that spring to the mind are Miss E. E. Burge [j (Broomfield), Miss S. B. Looseley (Harold Court), Miss A. Roberts (High Beech), 1 Miss E. McArthur and Mr. F. J. Macey (Oldchurch) and Dr. D. H. Irwm and Miss C. M. 4 Wilson (Wanstead), but there are hosts of others.