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have afflicted the post-war generation, housing is amongst the worst. The
result of bad housing can be seen in nearly all social problems the Department
is called upon to investigate. During the period 1920 to 1961 the
Corporation provided 938 houses and flats. They also took part in a new
town development at Frimley and Camberley.
Other aspects of growth in the services include the provision of new
clinics. In 1946 a comprehensive clinic system was provided at the Grange
Mansion, unfortunately burned down in January, 1960, which comprised:
Infant Welfare Clinic
Relaxation and Mothercraft Classes
School Health Inspection and Minor Ailment Clinics
Dental Clinic for Schoolchildren, Expectant and Nursing Mothers
and children under 5 years of age
Physiotherapy Department, including a Solarium
Speech Therapy Clinic.
The County Council scheme for providing a new comprehensive Clinic
on land recently acquired near the Town Hall, is being actively pursued
and it is hoped that in a year or two complete replacement of the services
provided at the Grange will be made available on this site.
Between the wars a very efficient District Nursing Service was built
up in Beddington and Wallington on a basis of voluntary subscription.
In 1936 a new district nurses' home, including commodious ante-natal
clinic premises for use in connection with the maternity and child welfare
services of the Corporation, was built at 57, Montagu Gardens. Both
district nurses and midwives lived at the home and a domiciliary visiting
service covering the whole of the town was in operation.
In 1948, under the National Health Service Act of 1946, the whole of
this service passed to the local health authority, the Surrey County
Council. The Divisional Medical Officer, reporting to the Mid-Eastern
Divisional Health Sub-Committee, took over the day-to-day administration
of the home and the services.
No history of the Public Health Services would be complete without
making a brief mention of the part played by the Department during the
war years, 1939 to 1946. During these years the Department not only
continued to carry on the routine services required under the relevant
legislation but, in addition, undertook the organisation and control of the
following:—
First Aid Posts;
Mobile First Aid Unit;
Ambulance Services;
Stretcher Party Depot;
Civil Defence Mortuary.
Officers of the Department continued to supervise all these services
until the cessation of hostilities in 1945.
The Civil Defence Ambulance Service, however, was continued at the
end of the war by the Borough as their own ambulance service, operating
from the fire station, which the Corporation built in 1937 in Belmont
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