View report page

In November 1919 the Council received a gift from the
American Red Cross of £2,000 for the opening of a Maternity
Hostel. This proved very useful for the first year or so, but
owing partly to the extension of the Guy's Charity district, the
number of new private midwives coming to practise in the
Borough, and to the fact that the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe
Hospital opened a ward for maternity cases, these all combined
to reduce the numbers who applied to go into the Municipal
Maternity Home, with the result that, in the end, we were only
dealing with the better class people in the Borough, and the Home
was not being utilized for the purpose for which it was founded.
It was consequently given up in 1924, at about the same time that
Fairby Grange Convalescent Home was presented to the Borough
by Dr. Alfred Salter.
Of course, a great many temporary changes took place during
the War, but it is not necessary to deal with these. All of the
regular staff who were of military age left to take up war work of
various kinds.
Immediately after the War, Public Health got a tremendous
impetus, which might be mainly traced to the experience of the
medical services in France and other parts of the world. In
these places it was conclusively proved that by properly organized
team work an enormous number of lives could be saved, and all
kinds of epidemic diseases arrested and wounds healed. The
information gained, was not confined to the medical services
alone, but became the common knowledge of the rank and file.
The Nation generally had suffered severely, the birth rate had
gone down, and most people felt that very insufficient attention
was being paid to public health. The results were that all sorts
of Societies sprang up connected with Maternity and Child Welfare
and all the Public Health services increased their officials and
staffs. The Maternity and Child Welfare Act which was passed
in 1918 greatly assisted Public Health Authorities. The Nation
suffered a shock when the large percentage of recruits who were
rejected on account of various physical defects was discovered.
Intimately connected with these were the awful housing conditions
which existed in 1919, for the stoppage of the building of houses