[Report 1939-1940] / Medical Officer of Health, Lichfield City & County.

  • Lichfield (England). City & County Council.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1939-1940] / Medical Officer of Health, Lichfield City & County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    must be regarded as a step in the right direction. The systematic inspection of shops commenced in 1935 was continued during 1939, but had to be curtailed in 1940. No formal action was taken during these two years. GOVERNMENT EVACUATION SCHEME, Early in 1939 I was requested to supervise a survey of housing accommodation which was conducted to determine the number of available billets in the City. In September, 1939, unaccompanied school children and mothers with children under school age were received from West Bromwich. The total number of evacuees received was 361. The operation of the scheme in Lichfield imposed an enormous amount of additional work on the Public Health Department, a good deal of which had to be undertaken outside usual office hours; but with the assistance of voluntary helpers all difficulties were solved and the newcomers were successfully billeted. It was not long, however, before the evacuees began to drift back home, and by the middle of 1940 the original number had been reduced to about 40. In June, 1940, we received an intimation concerning 300 children who were expected to arrive from the South-East Coast. For reasons connected with educational requirements this arrange¬ ment was cancelled on the morning the children were expected to arrive, although a comprehensive scheme for reception and billeting had been worked out. Early in 1940 we were advised that at some date unspecified about 300 grammar school children, with their teachers, may be sent from Birmingham. This contingent arrived in the City during November, and the billeting had to be effected under extremely difficult conditions, as during September and October there had been a large influx of evacuees and refugees from the vulnerable areas, principally London, and many of the billets ear¬ marked for the Birmingham children had been lost. In these circumstances there was no alternative but to introduce compulsory billeting, although the necessity for this course was deprecated by all concerned. At the end of 1940 the number of persons billeted in the City under the official arrangements was 610, while the number who had found their own accommodation had risen to 1536. JOHN FINERON, Sanitary Inspector,