Papers relating to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's role as Chairman of Birmingham City...

This section contains a resolution of thanks sent to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury by Dr. P. D. Innes, the Chief Education Officer of Birmingham City Education Committee, acknowledging her service as Chairman of the Hygiene Sub-Committee. The section also contains the covering letter which was sent with this resolution by the Education Committee's Secretary Mr. W. Lackey thanking Taylor Cadbury for her work as Chairman and provides an insight into her leadership of the Hygiene Sub-Committee.

Finding number: MS 466/160/1-2

Information about Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury and Birmingham City Education Committee's Hygiene Sub-committee taken from Richenda Scott, 'Elizabeth Cadbury: 1858-1951' (London: Harrap, 1955), pp. 106-109. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury described her work with the Hygiene Sub-Committee in her memoir of Sir George Newman published in the 'Friends Quarterly Examiner' in June 1948.

As part of the welfare reforms implemented by the Liberal Government following their election victory in 1906, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907 required local education authorities to provide for the medical inspection of elementary school children. On 1st September 1908 the Act came into force in Birmingham with the appointment of a School Medical Officer, three assistants and three nurses. In 1912 medical inspection expanded to include work supporting the physical health and welfare of school children. Scott suggests that Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury played 'a leading part' in the 'shaping and direction' of this wider service in Birmingham.

Following the enlargement of Birmingham's administrative boundaries in 1911, incorporating Kings Norton, Northfield and Selly Oak under the jurisdiction of Birmingham City Council, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury was invited to serve on the City Education Committee and appointed as Chairman of the Hygiene Sub-Committee in 1911. Taylor Cadbury worked with local hospitals, such as Birmingham Dental Hospital, encouraging medical authorities to allow the use of their premises for the establishment of clinics led by the Education Authority providing treatment for schoolchildren. Five dental clinics were opened in 1913. Taylor Cadbury was also instrumental in the establishment of school clinics across Birmingham which treated minor ailments and provided spectacles. In addition, she led the development of a clinic for the treatment of tonsils and adenoids which opened in October 1913 and oversaw the establishment of the Central School Clinic in Birmingham which was opened by her friend and colleague, Chief Medical Officer Sir George Newman, in September 1915.

Responsible for leading the development and implementation of services supporting the health of school children, Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury chaired the Hygiene Sub-Committee until 1924. As Scott suggests, this work reflected Taylor Cadbury's 'keen and prolonged interest in the school medical service' and the conditions of life for children and young people.