[Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough.

  • Smethwick (Worcestershire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    # Report of the Chief Sanitary Inspector. SANITARY ADM IN 1ST RATION In subiiiittiiig iny report on the Sanitary Administration of the Borongh for tlie year 1939. I am nnahle to point to any important achievement or advance in the realm of environmental sanitation. The exigencies of the international situation both before and since tlie outbreak of war have caused serious dei)letions both in the personnel of my staff and in the availability for routine ])iiblic health duties of those who remain. .lust before war was declared two of the male <lerks, V. Lawton and -J. Perrins, enlisted in H.M. Forces and immediately afterwards yotir assistant Sanitary Inspector, H. Herbert, volunteered and was accepted for service in a Hj'giene section of the R.A.M.C. I feel sure that members of the Council will be pleased to know that Mr. Herbert has earned steady promotion, and that at the time of writing these notes he holds the rank of Staff-Sergeant, the highest non-commissioned rank attainable in his branch of the service. Staff-Sergeant Herbert was one of that section of the British Expeditionary Force safely evacuated from France. iMy staff was further depleted by the loss of my deputy, Mr. W. E. Shaw, who was seconded to the A.R.P. service within a week or two of war being declared. 'When to these depletions is added the loss of a substantial proportion of the available time of myself and those members of my staff who remain, members of the Committee will not be surprised to learn that I have been able only to keep going the more urgent and essential services. In the early months of the year a new and com])lete survey of the town for the re-ascertainment of overcrowding was undertaken. The inforjiiation collected and tabulated was more comprehensive than any previously obtained, hue the outbreak of war has precluded the possibility of any immediate scheme for the abatement of overcrowding, and so no useful purpose would be served by the inclusion in this report of facts and figures which can have, foi- the present at least, an academic interest only.