Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Pseudo Rural Superiority and Victorian Values: Systemetic Failures in East Yorkshire School Medical Services 1908-1939 Andrew Barnes, B.A. M.A.

Yorkshire Society 2024 “Harry Gration History Essay Prize winner”

This talk describes how the introduction of the School Medical Service (SMS) in 1908, a significant moment in the development of the British welfare state, afforded the East Riding County Council an opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of the county’s children.  However, research relating to the implementation and management of the service reveals how the authority failed, not only the children in their care, but the staff entrusted with delivering that care. This apathetic approach, with parsimonious undertones, had links to an authority which was heavily influenced by the landed classes, many of which retained the Victorian values of a bygone age.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 15 October.

This photograph was scanned and released by the Imperial War Museum on the IWM Non-Commercial Licence.

Member’s report

Andrew Barnes described how the introduction of the School Medical Service in 1908, a significant moment in the development of the British welfare state, afforded the East Riding County Council an opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of the county’s children.

His research relating to the implementation and management of the service revealed how successive authorities failed – not only the children in their care, but the staff entrusted with delivering that care.  The council was heavily influenced by the landed classes, many of whom retained the Victorian values of a bygone age.  Their apathetic approach meant that the necessary measures were introduced late and were severely underfunded and understaffed.  The one doctor and the few nurses had to get around a large area by train and bicycle – being expected to ride up to 20 miles a day.

Matters improved significantly with the establishment of Humberside County Council in 1974.

Peter Burnett