大象传媒

Portsmouth was notorious for venereal disease. The local paper said that War had exposed "a neglected scourge". Royal Navy sailors would head for notorious pubs where women dazzled by the uniform and prostitutes were happy to oblige them. One medical officer called it a "highly-infected town".

The House of Lords was told that in 1919 that "the incidence of venereal disease amongst the military in the Portsmouth area was approximately two and a half times greater than that amongst the military throughout the United Kingdom", although these figures were later disputed by the government. The Venereal Diseases Act (1917) led to the opening of the first VD clinics and within two years more than twenty thousand cases had been treated in the Portsmouth area.

As medical treatments improved, the town council began to promote sex education. In 1920 it launched a campaign which targeted men rather than blaming 鈥榣oose women鈥� for the spread of disease. Subsequently the government took similar action throughout the country.

Location: Portsmouth, PO1 3DT
Credit: Imperial War Museums SP 3127

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