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4
Report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1940.
9. The medical inspection of the Rest Centres and
the supervision of children when accommodated at the
Centres.
10. The arrangements for the medical and nursing
inspection of war refugees.
The Training of Civil Defence Personnel.
Another important service for which the Public Health
Department has become responsible is the training of the personnel
of all sections of the Civil Defence Services under the control of
the Council. The Department has carried out these duties since
organised training was instituted in the early months of 1938,
and in June, 1940, the Council appointed me as Training Officer.
The training staff consists of a Chief Instructor, seven other
Government-trained instructors and eleven who have been trained
locally.
Mr. W. G. Pearce, the Chief Instructor, was seconded from
his duties as Sanitary Inspector in 1939 and now devotes the
whole of his time to Civil Defence duties. He is Chief Instructor
and also acts as Quartermaster for the Services for which the
Department is responsible.
The other Government-trained Instructors are officers of
the Council. They are Messrs. A. E. Vickers, E. V. Roots, W. H.
Jones, A. E. Handley and A. F. Saunders, Sanitary Inspectors,
and Messrs. L. F. Morgan and W. H. Michael, of the Borough
Engineer's Department. The locally-trained Instructors are Messrs.
E. M. Brown, E. H. Goff, H. L. Marshall, R. W. Martin, A. V.
Palmer, J. B. Privett, C. H. Rowe, C. T. Searle, E. R. Stead,
B. L. Shurgold and J. F. Wray. All the instructors devote a
large amount of their time to their training duties, much of it
after office hours.
A large number of Civil Defence volunteers have undergone
training in the last three years. During the year 180 courses
of lectures in Anti-Gas and 148 courses in First Aid have been
given,