[Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough.

  • Birkenhead (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pertaining to the health of the community, Perusal of the annual reports reveals how widely the work of a medical officer of health has extended during, say, the last twenty years; the medical inspection of Fchool children, the campaign against tuberculosis, child welfare work, and the opening of venefeal disease clinics are all of comparatively recent development, and it is in great measure due to Dr. Marsden’s abilit es that Birkenhead holds the position that it does to-day in regard to these matters. The duties of the Medical Officer of Health in Birkenhead include the responsibility for the meat inspection at Woodside Lairages, and few places in the Kingdom offer such extensive opportunities for experience of this work. Consequently Dr. Marsden soon became an acknowledged authority on the inspection of meat, and for a time all Army Service Corps Officers took a course of training under him on this subject. Many, and interesting, were the tales Dr. Marsden could tell of his experiences in the lairages, and in the Courts, where he was frequently called as an expert witness in meat cases. Dr. Marsden was a remarkably good public speaker, and as he was widely read and possessed of much originality of thought, he was always a popular figure at Sanitary Congresses and the meetings of the various Societies of which he was a member. He was thrice President of the Birkenhead Medical Society; he had occupied the Presidential Chair of the Northwestern Branch of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, of the Boyal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and of the Birkenhead Literary and Scientific Society. In debate he was valiant, and sometime^ inflicted severe verbal punishment upon his opponents, but it was usually well meant, and rarely taken amiss by those who knew him. Antiquarian research, collecting old books, pictures and china varied his studies from the purely professional. He wrote a “ History of the Birkenhead Literary and Scientific Society, 1857-1907 ” and was joint author of “ Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Marsden.” His literary knowledge was very considerable. Of very strong character, he was altogether a remarkable and distinguished man, and he will long be remembered by many who came writhin his sphere of influence in Birkenhead. Dr. Marsden married Beatrice Eva, daughter of Kev. C. Cotterill Ward, M.A., (Cantab.) Rector of Salford, Oxfordshire; by her, and their daughter, he is survived.