On This Day in Wembury — 27 October 1924: Medical officer and vaccinator post advertised
On this day the Plympton St Mary Union Guardians, through solicitor John W. Bickle of Underwood House, Plympton, issued a notice inviting applications for the post of District Medical Officer and Vaccinator for No. 3 District, covering the parishes of Plymstock and Wembury. The role carried a salary of £50 per year plus vaccination fees estimated at £25, for a district of about 5,930 acres and a population of 4,620. Applicants were required to hold recognised medical and surgical qualifications, with the appointment subject to the sanction of the Ministry of Health.
This illustrates how rural public health was organised in the inter-war period, still under the framework of Poor Law unions and their Guardians. Local medical officers were central to both everyday healthcare and compulsory vaccination duties, part of the gradual transition from Poor Law medicine to the more unified system that would arrive with the National Health Service in 1948.
Source: Western Morning News, 1 Nov 1924 (notice dated 27 Oct 1924)