The twentieth century witnessed the start of the system of healthcare that we know today. Before the introduction of the NHS in 1948, healthcare in Watford was rather disorganised. The treatment of accident and emergency cases in particular was associated with numerous difficulties. For example, when a car overturned on Batchworth Hill in Rickmansworth, the passengers had to lie on the ground by their car, waiting for the doctor to cycle over from Croxley.

At the beginning of the century, Watford only had one district nurse, known as the Town Nurse, who dealt with 22 cases per day. Unfortunately, there were usually 30 or 40 cases needing attention.

A new hospital was proposed on Rickmansworth Road, near where the Boys’ Grammar School stands today, following a crisis over a shortage of beds. Unfortunately, lack of funds prevented it being built. The £3,000 raised towards it was instead diverted to doubling the size of Watford Cottage Hospital on Vicarage Road.

Concern amongst the public about smallpox caused officials to realise that it was of the utmost necessity that the treatment of infectious diseases be improved. As a result, the Watford Isolation Hospital was built on Tolpits Lane. It opened in 1896. As well as smallpox, the hospital also catered for cases of scarlet fever, diphtheria and typhoid.

The mentally ill, meanwhile, were sent to Leavesden Asylum. Treatment was dubious, and recovery unlikely, but the asylum had a waiting list nonetheless.

One healthcare issue that was gaining attention was abortion, which was made a crime in 1803.

In 1911, there was a case in Watford that caught the public imagination. Dr Lightfoot was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for performing an “illegal operation” on a woman.

The judgement caused local outcry. A meeting was held at The Lime Tree Hotel in Watford, where 20,193 signatures were added to a petition to decrease Dr Lightfoot’s sentence. Even when his sentence was reduced to three years, the people were not satisfied.

After the doctor’s release from Maidstone Convict Prison, 7,000 people crowded in front of Watford Junction to see him return. When he appeared, they sang, ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow.’ Dr Lightfoot informed the crowd that he had been unjustly and illegally convicted.

Abortion was becoming increasingly common. Advertisements for illegal abortion services were cleverly disguised in newspapers and in public places. They claimed to offer relief to women who were “temporarily indisposed”.

Women who fell pregnant outside of marriage faced the shame of illegitimate motherhood, and married women with several children to look after faced the prospect of watching their children slowly starve if they were unable to afford enough food.

Women who could not afford an abortion often turned to desperate measures. In the early 1900s, a brown paper parcel was found on Chorleywood Common, containing the body of a child. A live baby was abandoned in the church porch at Bushey in 1916.

It wasn’t until 1967 that the Abortion Act made abortions legal if the pregnancy endangered the life or health of the woman.

During the 1950s considerable developments were made in healthcare in Hertfordshire. In 1957, a new maternity ward opened at Shrodells Hospital - now Watford General - resulting in a considerable drop in the infant mortality rate. There was also a new casualty wing built at the Peace Memorial.

As times changed, so too did the big health concerns. Polio was a serious threat in the 1950s. Despite fears created by polio outbreaks, new vaccines were treated with suspicion by some due to rare cases when the injection caused paralysis in the injected limb. 40% of parents in south west Herts refused to give consent for their children’s polio jabs.

The first half of the twentieth century saw huge changes in healthcare. The effects of the medicinal progress made during this era can still be seen today.