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The rates in the individual wards showed big contrasts and different trends. Carlton Ward, with the
poorest population, and Brondesbury Park, with the richest population, illustrate the general course. In the
period 1936.39 the infant mortality rate in Carlton was the highest in the borough, but fell markedly during
the war years, with a still greater reduction in the post.war period. The rates in Brondesbury Park, on the
other hand, show much smaller reductions. The infant mortality rates in the wards with the poorer populations,
Harlesden, Willesden Green and Kilburn, show similar trends as in the Carlton Ward, except that the post.war
falls in the rates were not so marked. The infant mortality rates in the wards with the middle class populations,
Cricklewood, Mapesbury and Neasden, follow quite a different course. They all show an increase during the
war years and a marked decline in the post.war years.
During the war, the number and character of the ward populations were affected by the greater
evacuation from the better.class areas and the varied effects of bombing and requisitioning in all areas. The
differences in the infant mortality rates were therefore probably due to this factor, for in the better wards,
populations with an average lower standard of living and therefore higher infant mortality rate were left
behind, while in the poorer wards, the average lower standard of living was unaffected by evacuation. The
national provision of milk and vitamin supplements during the war raised the standard of nutrition of the
mothers, especially of the poorer classes, with a consequent reduction in the infant mortality rate; but in the
best wards this fall in the infant mortality rate did not compensate for the rise due to the greater evacuation
of the classes with a higher standard of living and lower infant mortality rate.
In the post.war period, the average standard of living in the various wards was affected by the return
from evacuation, and it rose in the best wards as some of the well.to.do returned to the borough; there was a
consequent reduction in the infant mortality rates. Varied effects of bombing and requisitioning in all areas
were also responsible for some of the changes. In the post.war period, the average standard of living of the
Brondesbury Park population was particularly affected by the erection in this ward of by far the largest number
of prefabricated houses in the borough (191 out of a total of 499) and by the placing of a large number of
families (198) in requisitioned houses.
Marked improvements in the post.war years are probably due to the improved nutrition of the mothers,
improvements in maternal and infant care, and in the treatment. of infections, Rh. abnormalities and
haemorrhages.