[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell,

  • Camberwell (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1916?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell,. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CAM 19 Camberwell Report of the medical Officer of Health. To The Worshipful the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Camberwell. Gentlemen, At the middle of 1914, the latest date at which an estimate can be made with any hope of accuracy, the population of London was reckoned to be 4,516,612. An estimate now is more than usually doubtful on account of the war, which has led to so great a moving hither and thither of the people of London, in common with that of the whole country. One has only to use one's eyes in the streets to see the change in numbers and age distribution of the population, a change that must of necessity be reflected in its vital statistics. These in years removed from the close neighbourhood of the taking of the census have always suffered from an element of unreliability, and now will have to be viewed with an even more critical eye. The births actually registered in London were 103,646, compared with 111,265 in 1913. But this number must be corrected by the inclusion of the births of children of ordinary London residents who were not born within its boundaries, and by the exclusion of those who were the children of temporary inhabitants of the County. When this has been carried out the number used in the calculation of the rate is 101,649, a decrease from 1914 of 8,018. There were 72,421 registrations of deaths, but these have again to be corrected in a similar manner to the births; that is by the inclusion of persons who, although having a permanent home in London, died outside its boundaries, while those who were only temporary residents at the time of their deaths will have to be excluded. The number of registrations remaining after this has been done was 72,399 for the 52 weeks of 1915, compared with 64,994 for the same number of weeks of 1914. The difficulty of getting at even a fairly correct population is accentuated when one comes to a lesser district such as Camberwell, for the elements of error which are likely to balance themselves in the larger number exert a disproportionate influence when they are applied to the smaller. Right from the beginning of the war Camberwell has not failed in giving up its men of a fighting age to the Navy and Army, and one has only to look about in the main streets to note the absence, unfortunately in some cases permanent, of men of military age. That this will exercise a disturbing influ ence both on the number and age distribution of the Borough must be obvious to all. The changes in the trade and employment conditions have been the same in this Borough as elsewhere—new industries have sprung