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This is the last occasion on which I shall be responsible for the submission of an annual
report as Medical Officer of Health of the City of London.
It has been a privilege to serve the Corporation of the City from 1928 to 1956, first as
Medical Officer of Health of the Port of London and then as Medical Officer of Health of the City.
During the last illness of my predecessor, Dr. W. M. Willoughby, and for about a year after
his death, I took charge of the health work in both the City and the Port. 1 was unwilling to
leave the Port Health Department, in which I was very happy and with the work of which I was
thoroughly familiar, having previously served in the Port of Liverpool for nearly 8 years. It
was then my impression that there would be definite advantages in combining the two appointments,
but those were more spacious days, and the Corporation would not have been prepared
to consider such a proposition even if I had suggested it, which I obviously could not do. At
the time they were right and I was wrong, because war was looming ahead and Civil Defence
duties were soon to throw heavy additional responsibilities on the Medical Officer of Health of
the City, and subsequently post-war conditions maintained the strain.
In the meantime two senior appointments, those of Comptroller and City Solicitor, were
amalgamated and a precedent thereby established.
On the retirement of Dr. Morgan as Medical Officer of Health of the Port of London, it was
decided to amalgamate the two Medical Officer of Health appointments. I felt that I was then
too old to take up Port Health duties again after nearly 20 years, particularly as the offices of
the two departments were geographically widely separated, and the Corporation kindly postponed
the amalgamation until my retirement.
I am confident that Dr. Greenwood Wilson, with his long experience in the City and Port
of Cardiff, will successfully take charge of the health work of both the City and the Port of
London. The administration will be much easier when the new Guildhall offices are available,
and the Medical Officer of Health will have an office with the City staff on one side and the
Port staff on the other.
I wish Dr. Greenwood Wilson well, and hope that he will be as happy in the combined
appointments as I have been in each successively.
For I have been very happy indeed throughout my time in the service of the Corporation.
I have always had a loyal and efficient staff with whom it has been a pleasure to work, and I
tender to them all, past and present, my sincere thanks for their help and their good fellowship.
I cannot adequately express my gratitude to the members of the Corporation of London,
particularly the Chairmen and members of the Public Health and Port Health Committees, over
the past 28 years, for their unvarying kindness and consideration.
I have always felt that it was an honour to serve the Corporation of the City of London
and that, in my limited sphere, I must do everything in my power to maintain the high standard
of local government for which the City has for centuries been renowned. But quite apart from
such considerations, I could not have done less than my best in return for such kindness and
friendship as I have enjoyed from all the members of the Court of Aldermen and the Court of
Common Council.
My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen, though I am glad, at my age, to lay down the responsibilities
of office, I am sad to have come to the end of the very happy associations and the many privileges
I have enjoyed in your service. I thank you all for them most gratefully and I pray that the
City of London will prosper and the Corporation will stand even higher in the esteem of all men
of goodwill throughout the world.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient Servant,
CHAS. F. WHITE,
Medical Officer of Health..