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ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Bexley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the???
year 1963, my eighteenth and probably the last to be submitted
to the Authority as at present constituted in view of
the creation of the London Borough of Bexley under the
London Government Act, 1963.
Eighteen years is not a long time in the life of a local
authority (although it does represent a substantial slice of
the working life of an individual) but it is long enough to
warrant a comparison of the health circumstances of the
Borough at the beginning and end of this period.
The year 1946 witnessed the beginning of the transitions
from war to peace. The strain of bombardment of the civilian
population was lifted and the re-integration of family lifes
was assisted by the return of evacuated children and by and
acceleration of the rate of demobilisation of the Armed???
Forces. Housing circumstances had been seriously affected
by bombing and the suspension of new building, and represented
the most serious of the problems facing the Borough
at that time. Difficulties in the process of resettlement incivilian
life inevitably occurred as a result of the enforced
separation, over a number of years, of husbands and wivesi
children and parents; food shortages remained and in many
ways the discipline of the wartime years continued.
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