Catalogue description Records of Wartime Services, Second World War

General responsibility for civil defence and emergency services necessary for the safety and health of the civilian population in the event of war was committed successively to the Home Office, the Lord Privy Seal and, after September 1939, the Ministry of Home Security. In December 1937 responsibility for the organisation of base hospitals in connection with air raid precautions work was transferred from the Home Office to the Ministry of Health. In June 1938 the ministry took charge of the whole emergency hospital service and in December 1938 the preparation of first-aid posts and ambulance services. These services comprised the Emergency Medical Services under a director general.

The organisation employed full-time and part-time doctors and other medical and nursing staff, organised the pooling of facilities of independent hospitals, the building of hutted hospitals and conversion of buildings into subsidiary hospitals. It also controlled central purchasing of medical supplies until November 1941, when this duty was transferred to the Medical Supplies Directorate of the Ministry of Supply. These medical services, including the Emergency Public Health Service, administered for the ministry by the Medical Research Council, were of some importance in preparing for the introduction of the National Health Service.

The ministry was also responsible for the provision of a shelter health service, and in late 1940 took over from the Ministry of Home Security the shelter service as a whole except for the supply, distribution and construction of shelters. It dealt with the running of public air raid shelters, matters of sanitation, equipment, ventilation and order. Shelter officers were appointed to the staff of the regional controllers and a commissioner for shelters was appointed in conjunction with the Ministry of Home Security.

The ministry had further functions outside the health field. In November 1938 it was made responsible for the civilian evacuation scheme under the general direction of the Lord Privy Seal (from September 1939 the Minister of Home Security) and the Civil Defence Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence, taking over this function from the Air Raid Precautions Department of the Home Office. The scheme was operated through local authorities, who exercised billeting powers by delegation from the Minister of Health. Evacuees became a charge on their home authorities for normal peacetime costs and on the Exchequer for costs arising from special wartime conditions.

The ministry's duties in connection with persons made homeless by the war were also exercised through local authorities. Initially the homeless were housed through the public assistance services under the direction of the Poor Law Division, but from November 1940 central government became responsible for financing rest centres and emergency services provided by local authorities. Information and administrative centres were also maintained.

A special commissioner for the homeless was appointed to co-ordinate services in the London Civil Defence Region in September 1940, assisted by an Inspectorate for Welfare and Rehousing. The minister had powers, normally delegated to clerks of local authorities, to requisition premises for rehousing, billeting, civil defence purposes and, after January 1941, for housing workers engaged on work of national importance. In November 1940 rehousing became a civil defence function of the air raid precautions controllers of the Ministry of Home Security.

The department also had a number of minor functions which were wartime extensions of its peacetime jurisdiction. These included the allocation of labour in house building and other fields of departmental responsibility, emergency mortuary and burial arrangements, repair of war-damaged buildings, central purchasing of supplies, emergency water supply and sewage arrangements and the provision of special audit services for emergency services. It also had duties in connection with the prevention and relief of wartime distress which were later committed to the Assistance Board, and duties under the Camps Act 1939 which were in June 1945 transferred to the Ministry of Education.

The department also collaborated with the Military Recruitment Department of the Ministry of Labour and National Service in the operation of national service medical boards, which were responsible for examining men and women liable for conscription as well as volunteers.

A number of specialised divisions were established to discharge emergency duties. They included an Evacuation Division (Division IX) set up in April 1939, a Supply Division (1941), concerned with equipping rest centres and shelters, and the Emergency Medical Services.

Other functions were carried out by peacetime divisions. An emergency regional organisation was also formed under regional controllers to co-ordinate these services with the efforts of local authorities and voluntary organisations and to provide liaison with the regional commissioners of the Ministry of Home Security.