Papers of Archibald Kerr Chalmers, Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow 1892-1925

• Reference:GB 243 D-HE5/2
• Dates of Creation:1885 - 1946
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  30 items; 4 files; 2 volumes; 2 bundles

• Scope and Content

  Chalmers was appointed Medical Offficer of Health in 1898, having been Russell’s assistant since 1892. He held the position until his retirement in 1925.

  Chalmers had to deal with an outbreak of plague, which resurfaced in 1901, having been absent since 1665. Despite his relative inexperience Chalmers, backed by the impressive sanitary organization built up by Russell, faced the difficulties well. Another challenge was the poor state of child health as revealed by the medical inspection of schoolchildren and against the backdrop of infant mortality at 14.9 per cent in 1901. Chalmers and some progressive councillors pioneered infant feeding by opening milk depots in 1904. A female doctor employed in the city's health department began infant consultations. The child health movement grew and voluntary provisions followed on from Chalmers's initiative. By 1914 Glasgow had opened fourteen consultation centres with four doctors and ten trained health workers.

  In 1920 he oversaw the reorganization of the city's sanitary department, when it became the public health department. This was not just a change in name; it was the point at which Glasgow accepted medical supervision of all medico-sanitary related provision. It was one of the last Scottish cities to do so.

  [Source: Dictionary of National Biography]

  Other articles by him can be found in D-HE/6/7. There are items with his initials in D-HE/6/2, D-HE/6/5, D-HE/6/7 and D-HE/6/8 and these may have been his own copies.

• Access Information

  Open

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• Note

  These were loose papers not obviously assigned to a filing system or to the Public Health Library. The records include personal correspondence and papers by Chalmers. Unless items were obviously folded together they have been listed separately as it is not known how closely related they were intended to be.

• Conditions Governing Use

  Application for reproduction should be made to the Archivist