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INTRODUCTION
In 1892 Sir Shirley Murphy prefaced the first annual report of the Medical Officer of
Health of the Administrative County of London with the following statement:
"The passing of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, having placed the London County Council
in direct relation with sanitary administration in the administrative county of London, I propose to
present to the Council each year a report on the health of London."
Both he and his successor, Sir William Hamer, were much concerned with the control of
infectious disease and with matters relating to housing. It was evident from the space
devoted to certain of the infectious diseases that they were the cause of very grave concern,
as the following short table will show:
Deaths Deaths
1892 1964 1892 1964
Smallpox 29 — Enteric fever 424 —
Measles 2,388 2 Erysipelas 292 —
Scarlet fever 1,169 — Influenza 2,264 28
Diphtheria 1,859 — Pneumonia 6,164 2,256
Whooping cough 2,491 — Pulmonary tuberculosis 8,053 178
The population in 1892 was 4,284,678, in 1964 3,179,000.
The infant mortality rate for children under one year of age per thousand births was
154 in London in 1892 compared with the present day rate of 21.3. Sir William Hamer's
successor in 1926, Sir Frederick Menzies, included in the report for 1925, in collaboration
with his predecessor, a report presenting a review of London's health record during the
existence of the Council up to that date. He made comment on progress made in housing
by the aid of the Housing of the Working Classes Act and the new Building Act of 1894.
During this period the school medical work came under the direction of the County
Council and had the benefit of the services of Dr. James Kerr who from 1902 played a
leading part in the school health service. Sir Frederick Menzies' great contribution to
public health was mainly in the field of the re-organisation of London's hospital services.
This work was, of course, interrupted by the war in 1939 when Sir Frederick retired. His
successors, Sir Allen Daley and Dr. J. A. Scott, devoted their energies to the re-organisation
of the personal health services which were transferred to the Council as a result of the
National Health Service Act of 1946. Their successor has recently had to devote a great
deal of effort to the transfer of services to the new London Boroughs.
In the course of this transfer papers on nearly every aspect of the subject were transmitted
to a working party set up to facilitate the working of the London Government Act of 1963,
whose reports were furnished to the new Inner London Boroughs together with memoranda
on the procedure in use by the London County Council. These documents have been
preserved in three volumes which constitute a veritable Doomsday Book of the personal
health services as they were in 1964. Inevitably, with progress, they will become out of date
but they probably represent the best documented evidence for future historians of how
the personal health services had developed.
The County Council's successor, the Greater London Council, is still responsible for the
Ambulance Service and has certain duties in slum clearance. The Inner London Education
Authority, the other heir to the London County Council, will continue to be responsible
for the School Health Service. Although this is the last report as at present constituted it is
hoped that the Greater London Council will in "London Statistics" publish a chapter of
health statistics annually which will cover not only the old London County Council area
but also that of the new Greater London Council.
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