[Report 1915] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough.

  • Birkenhead (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1915
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1915] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/102 (page 10)
    lO I totally disagree with this method of estimation for the following' reasons:— The Registrar General states that “men of military age liave been largely drafted to military training centres or sent abroad with the Army, and the remainder of the male adult population, as well as, to a lesser extent, the female population has migrated on an unprecedented scale into areas other than those in which it was enumerated at the last Census.” I find no evidence to support the above statement as regards Birkenhead ; and although I have not the figures as to how raa>iy men had joined the x\rmy and Navy from Birkenhead up to June 30th, 1915, the number of men working at the various munition factories and shipbuilding yards fully equalizes this, as the number of houses occupied shows. Then again the “natural” increase in the population (excess of births over d^iths) in 19 15 was 1651 as against 1639 in 1914, and is practically in the same ratio to the ])oi»ulation as calculated by me. If, however, the Hegistrar General’s figures, showing a decrease of 5378 in the po[)ulation are taken, the ratio is entirely out of proportion. As regards the Militar}^ population in the Borough no notice has been taken of this although a very large proportion of the Birkenhead recruits have been stationed at the Depots here with the Cheshire Kegiment which most of them have joined—no doubt some of these have been drafted to other places, but their number has been balanced by men coming here from other districts in their stead. I think, therefore, everything being taken into account, that the population of the Borough, as estimated by me, is as nearly accurate as can be arrived at. A subject which again occupied the attention of the Com- mittee for a considerable time was that of