AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 73
Milk and meat was stored in the safe – a
cupboard cut into the wall on the south side
of the house with a mesh wall exposed to the
outside air – because there wasn’t a fridge.
You could cool the temperatures still further
with the aid of a wet sack. Woodward’s dad,
an electrical engineer, was a two-packet-a-
day smoker, as were all his workmates, but
he made it to the age of 86, when he died
of a heart attack. “We were in smoke all the
time – no one thought anything amiss about
smokers.”
Other than that, Woodward says, “my
family was pretty enlightened. Mum or Dad
would be horrified that people might think
we lived in relatively unsanitary conditions,
but we had weekly baths and often the boys
A big change in attitudes
to health: Alistair and Jack
Woodward, right.
The vital statistics
1939
Life expectancy:
65 (men),
68 (women)
Total births: 32,871
Deaths: 14,158
Infant mortality rate:
31 per 1000 live births
Maternal mortality rate
(including septic abortion):
3.64 per 1000 (364 per 100,000)
Population: 1,641,6002018
Life expectancy:
79.5 (men);
83.2 (women)
Total births: 58,020
Deaths: 33,222
Infant mortality rate (2016):
3.8 per 1000 births
Maternal mortality rate (2016):
9.42 per 100,000
Population: 4,972,177 (to July 14)