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34
the Board of Education until some uncomfortable cases of postoperative
bleeding in other parts of the country showed the considerable
risks that were being run.
The conditions were due primarily to lack of better facilities
and especially to lack of accommodation. This lack of accommodation
met us at many points and was one of the many difficulties
we had to contend with.
The Education Department in 1908, was housed in the Priory
Schools, and a room on the ground floor was fitted out to carry
out the treatment of minor ailments, and later this room was also
used by Dr. Banham for refraction work. When the new Council
Offices were opened in 1910, the Education department moved into
the new building, but it was not until 1914 that accommodation was
provided for a School Clinic. In the latter year, three rooms on
the top of the building were fitted out, and dental treatment,
refraction, and removal of tonsils and adenoids, as well as minor
ailments were done in these rooms until 1920, when two Army huts
were erected oil the site of the present Town Hall.
The Provision of Meals Act, 1906, was put in force in the
district for those children who were under-nourished, and meals
were provided through the holidays as well as in term time. Some
dinners were provided at the Cookery Centres, but most were given
at a restaurant in Osborne Road, South Acton, at a cost of 2½d.
each. This arrangement was continued until the outbreak of the
Great War, when there was a great increase in the number of
children requiring free meals. In September 1914, two rooms were
hired from the authorities of All Saints Church, one was fitted up
as a kitchen and the other was used as a dining room. The number
of meals provided, increased from 11,284 in 1913 to 26,945 in
1914, but in 1915 the number had again fallen to 14,834.
Much more could be said which might be of interest at
the present time, but considerations of space forbid my giving a
fuller account of the various aspects of the School Medical Service.
D. J. Thomas.