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Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster.
1914-
To the
Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors
of the City of Westminster.
Mr. Mayor, my Lords, Lady and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you my Annual Report for the
year 1914.
Returns required by the Local Government Board, and particulars
relating to Factories and Workshops required by the Home
Office, are incorporated therein.
The outbreak of war naturally overshadowed all else. The importance
of maintaining the health of our soldiers and of guarding
them against needless risks of preventable disease is now well
recognised. In view of the fact that the ordinary Sanitary
Advisors of the Army Medical Service in London, would be transferred
to active service, I wrote to the War Office suggesting that it
would be an advantage to utilise the services of the civil sanitary
officials in their respective districts, and offered to co-operate in any
way. I was requested to see the Deputy Director of Medical Services
for the London District, at the Horse Guards, and he thereafter wrote
on the 7th August, that he would be glad to avail himself of my
services, and that of the sanitary staff, if the Council concurred. The
Council, at their meeting on the 13th August, gave the necessary
authority, and I was appointed to act as "Sanitary Supervisor" for
Westminster, and was later gazetted as Captain in the Royal Army
Medical Corps (Sanitary Officers available on mobilisation).*
*This particular service was established in 1909 for emergencies of this kind
by Sir Alfred Keogh, then Director-General of the Army Medical Service.
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