London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1933

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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In reply to a further questionnaire, the following replies were received by your Director:—

Number attending without
SchoolbreakfastReason
Blackhorse Road Senior Girls5942 (a) felt sick; (b) did not fancy it; (c) no time to eat-it.
17 Poverty. Appearance and physique bear this out.
Wm. McGuffie Senior Girls38No appetite.
Wm. Elliott Whittingham Boys3013 no appetite, 11 occasionally, 6 poverty.
Markhouse Road Infants2212 get up late, 3 no appetite, 7 poverty.

The total number of children who come to school habitually
without breakfast where the reason given is poverty, was 41, and
of these 25 were in the Higham Hill area.
20. MISCELLANEOUS.
(i) and (ii) Employment of Children and Young Persons.— The
work of the Juvenile Employment and Welfare Committee is
referred to in the following report by Mr. Dempsey, the Juvenile
Employment Officer: —
"The Juvenile Employment and Welfare Committee met on
eleven occasions during 1933. The Committee's report for 1932
stated that there was not much hope, at the date of their report,
that the bad state of unemployment during 1932 would be
improved during 1933. The general gloom began to lift, however,
in July, and for the remainder of the year better conditions
prevailed. January opened with the worst conditions the Bureau
has known. There were then 402 boys and girls on the registers,
of whom 184 were receiving Unemployment Benefit. The highest
figure for any previous corresponding period was 416 in 1925,
when 181 received Unemployment Benefit. It should be borne
in mind that in 1925 Extended Benefit was given to large numbers
who had only eight stamps to their credit. The first statutory
condition for Unemployment Benefit at present, is that a
claimant must have thirty stamps to his credit. It is therefore
evident that the proportion of boys and girls who received benefit
in January, 1933 (184), is really very much greater than in 1925
(181), when the facilities for receiving benefit were so much
easier.
"The highest and lowest registrations at the Bureau for the
year 1933, are as follow: —
January 402 (boys 210, girls 192); November 72 (boys 47,
girls 25).