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Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR THE
YEAR 1948
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Stoke Newington, N.16.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington.
This Annual Report is presented in the abridged form required by the Ministry of Health during
the war years and subsequently.
My duties as Medical Officer of Health began on the 5th July, 1948, when the personal services,
together with Dr. King the former Medical Officer of Health, and the staff engaged on the personal
services, maternity and child welfare, tuberculosis, home helps, day nurseries and health visiting,
passed to the London County Council.
It gave me great pleasure to take over the post of part-time Medical Officer of Health of Stoke
Newington because at the time of my appointment to Hackney in 1920 Professor Kenwood was
Medical Officer of Stoke Newington, also in a part-time capacity. The ' personal services ' were not
in being when Dr. Kenwood, the first Medical Officer of Health of the Borough of Stoke Newington,
was appointed in 1900.
Dr. King, in his last Annual Report, referred to the pioneer work of Professor Kenwood in
maternity and child welfare. Professor Kenwood was, however, a pioneer in all aspects of public
health work. He played a prominent part in the National Health Society which trained health
visitors and also in the Royal Sanitary Institute which trained sanitary inspectors. He was the
last Medical Officer of Health to hold the appointment of Public Analyst ; he held the F.I.C. which
qualified him for such an appointment. In addition to his part-time appointment as Medical Officer
of Health of Stoke Newington, he was Medical Officer of Health of the County of Bedford from 1908
to 1929. Professor Kenwood was also Medical Officer of Health to Finchley for four years after his
appointment to Stoke Newington in 1900.
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