[Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey.

  • Guernsey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION \ - V The following paragraphs are included for those who may read this report without any background information about the area it concerns. The administrative area is the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which compromises the islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm and Jethou. Guernsey is the largest of these and the most westerly of all the Channel Islands: Alderney is the most northerly and but nine miles from the coast of France. Sark, Herm and Jethou lie between Guernsey and that section of the coast of France which contains the Bay of Avranches. Alderney and Sark each have their own Parliament, the States of Alderney and the Sark Chief Pleas. This is an over-simplification which must suffice for present purposes, but the student will not lack for much more detailed information elsewhere. The Public Health Department functions within the Board of Health. The Board is a standing committee of the States of Guernsey, deriving its powers from Guernsey legislation and responsible to the States. This independence from the central government of the United Kingdom is what the stranger to the Channel Islands finds most difficult to understand. Nevertheless it is so and some 900 years of self-government since William, Duke of Normandy gained the English Crown, are sufficient proof of this.