Hertfordshire records

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was widespread concern about the physical deterioration of the British people. One in 10 infants died before they were a year old, and many of those who survived reached adult life in poor health. During 1902, reports in the national press claimed that up to two thirds of the young men who volunteered to fight in the Boer War in South Africa (1899 to 1902) had been rejected because of unsatisfactory physique. An interdepartmental committee set up in 1903 drew a shocking picture of the nation's children—malnourished, poorly housed, and deprived. Moreover, the birth rate was falling. The medical officer of health for Hertfordshire at around this time stated:

Hertfordshire does less than forty out of the fifty-five counties to perpetuate the national stock; for England and Wales the birth-rate has for thirty-three years been steadily declining, only two Continental countries (Belgium and France) having lower birth-rates, while that for Japan is increasing and is …