A REPORT on the health and hygiene issues related to wartime evacuees who arrived in Dumfries and Galloway was produced by the county medical officer, John Ritchie MD.
In it he revealed that the government scheme, whereby children from city homes were sent to the countryside, “raised problems” locally.
Reflecting on the period from 1939 to 1945, Dr Ritchie wrote: “They caused a good deal of work and worry.
“As it was necessary to get them distributed to billets throughout the county as quickly as possible, medical examination on arrival had to be rapid and somewhat perfunctory, and for weeks after the public health office was bombarded with complaints about the verminous condition and filthy habits of some of our guests.
“The majority of billetors faced the situation sensibly, recognising that dealing with the transferred children was a valuable form of national service, the district nurses did excellent work and matters shortly improved considerably.”
Youngsters with skin diseases or infestations “too severe to be dealt with at home” were treated in hospital.
Meanwhile, the Eskdale Hospital became a permanent residence for anyone who “proved unsuitable for billeting in private houses.”
Dr Ritchie added: “It is not suggested, of course, that all the children sent to the county were of this type, but they were sufficiently numerous to constitute a real wartime problem and, more importantly, to indicate that there is a section of the population whose education for some generations should be mainly directed to raising their ideas of personal cleanliness and environmental hygiene.
“Had time permitted, it would have been useful to classify the incomers according to their housing conditions in their native places – to see, that is, how those who came from slum areas compared with the inhabitants of housing scheme homes – but under the circumstances this was quite impracticable.”
