A year in pictures: 1948
GETTY^ IMAGES/TOPFOTOThe NHS is born
An infant is weighed during a health check in Bootle,
Merseyside, shortly after the formal launch of the British
National Health Service in July 1948. The new system,
implemented by the postwar Labour government, promised
medical treatment free for all at the point of delivery. Babies
and infants now qualified for progress checks at clinics, and
mothers could seek advice on caring for their children. Improved
child health was one of the great achievements of the new NHS.New life on the ocean wave
Cheery child emigrants wave for the camera
as they sail aboard the liner RMS Ormonde
from Britain to Australia. These youngsters
travelled to Western Australia, where they
settled in the Fairbridge Farm School in
Pinjarra; this scheme facilitated many
child migrants during the 20th century.
After the horrors of the Second World War,
thousands of British people (dubbed ‘Ten
Pound Poms’ because of the reduced fares
charged) chose to start a new life in the
‘white Commonwea lth ’ of Austra lia, New
Zealand and Canada; the Ormonde was
one of several ships chartered for this mass
wave of migration.