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Other items of foodstuffs which received special attention were imported prawns, oranges,
tomato puree and paste and desiccated coconut. 2,365 samples of tea were submitted for
examination; this compares with 3,093 samples in 1961, the satisfactory standard of which
continued to justify the reduction in sampling commenced in I960.
Staff Changes
At the end of October 1962, Dr. Hugh Willoughby, Deputy Port Medical Officer of Health, and
Dr. J.A. Jones, First Assistant Port Medical Officer retired after a total of sixty years given
between them to the service of the Corporation, nearly all on boarding duties. Their practical
knowledge of maritime quarantine procedures was profound and their enforced retirement through
physical inability to continue boarding was a grievous loss to the Port of London Health Service.
Fortunately we have been able to retain their services in a consultative capacity and fortunately
too, we have been able (rather unexpectedly!) to replace them with two doctors (Dr. W.T. Rougier
Chapman and Dr. G.W. Aston) who also have had long practical experience of shipping and also
have a love of the sea.
1954- 1963
As this is probably my last Annual Report, I should like to summarise the developments and
changes that have occurred in the Port of London Health Service since my appointment in June
1954. They are as follows
1. New or reconstructed Dock Offices for Port Health Inspectors and Rodent Staffs at the
London, Tilbury, Surrey Commercial and West India Docks, and plans for new offices in the Royal
Docks.
2. Rationalised transportation arrangements for all Port Health Inspectors and Rodent Staffs.
3. Co-operation from its very inception with the Port of London Authority's vital Thames
Navigation Service and to that end, equipment of the Hulk "Hygeia" and both lower River Launches
with radiotelephony. It is hoped to complete the scheme by equipping the proposed new upper
River Launch with radiotelephony, thereby enabling its users to keep in direct touch by radiotelephone
with Head Office instead of the relatively tiresome business of using the land telephone
at fixed hours.
4. Appointment of a 'firm' of five general practitioners as permanent 'locum tenetes' for the
boarding Medical Officers whenever they are sick or on vacation.
5. Provision of 'prestige' uniforms for all Port Health Staffs, Doctors, (including locum
tenentes), Port Health Inspectors and Rodent Staffs, that work whole time on the River.
6. Construction and putting into service of the already renowned boarding cutter, the
'Humphrey Morris'.
7. Plans for a new launch on the Upper River to replace the 'Alfred Robertson'.
8. Public Health Shellfish Regulations — Ministry of Health order making a 'prescribed area'
along the northern coast of the Isle of Sheppey, from Garrison Point to Warden Point like the
order already applying to the opposite side of the Thames Estuary from Hole Haven Creek to
Havengore.
9. Regrading with creation of Senior Grades for Port Health Inspectors and Rodent Staffs.
10. Investigation of catering hygiene on ships at sea and issue of illustrated booklets on the
subject to galley crews.
11. Constant efforts to improve hygiene of food handling in the docks (unloading of foodstuffs,
etc.) and of water supplies to ships both in the docks and at wharves.
12. No development, great or small can take place in any branch of the local government service
without the consistently loyal and devoted service of the departmental staffs concerned together
with the ever ready support and co-operation of the other departments that get involved in any
given project. Behind all that essentially of course, are not only the strong support of the
Chairman and members of the parent Committee but also of the sometimes numerous other committees
(especially the finance committee!) that get drawn into the affairs, and last but not least
the Court of Common Council. It is the qualities of friendliness and quick perceptiveness in
members and officers of the Corporation alike that make working in the service so agreeable.
The Chairmen in my term of office have been, Mr. (now Alderman) A.C. Trinder, M.A., 2 years,
Mr. (now Deputy) H.T. Pike (1 year) — these two of the old Port Health Committee), the late
Deputy Humphrey W. Morris (of the newly created Port and City of London Health Committee)
(3 years) Mr. Stanley E. Cohen (again of the new combined Committee) (3 years) and now again
but this time for the combined committee, Mr. Deputy H.T. Pike.
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