In May 1916, it was revealed that during the previous ten years, as many as 1,000 children in St Helens had died from measles, writes Stephen Wainwright.

Three years later, Dr Joseph Cates upped his estimate of measles mortality to 4,000 deaths over twenty years.

That revision by the St Helens Medical Officer of Health included youngsters who had died from other complaints that had been brought on by measles.

Dr Cates also added that for every child that had lost their life from the deadly disease, four or five others had survived but been seriously damaged in health.

That means for the first two decades of the 20th century, around 20,000 St Helens children had, after contracting measles, either died or suffered life-changing consequences.

The Baldwin Street workhouse where early vaccines were administered (Image: Supplied) The recent sad death of a measles victim in Alder Hey Hospital is a reminder of the dangers of a disease that a century ago was a widespread killer.

Dr Cates also disclosed that 10,000 children in England and Wales died each year from measles.

But the death toll was not evenly shared demographically.

The death rate among infants of unskilled labourers was almost four times as great as children from middle and upper classes.

St Helens Reporter April 12, 1929 (Image: Supplied) That, Dr Cates claimed, was often because poor people's houses were not kept sufficiently clean and suffered from overcrowding, allowing contagious diseases to spread.

And St Helens was then a highly overcrowded town with many children living in deprived conditions.

In the days before vaccination was available, the adoption of free home nursing for measles sufferers in St Helens from about 1916 did much to reduce the dreadful death toll.

After one measles epidemic in 1919, it was reported that out of over 500 cases, there had only been a single death through the success of the home nursing scheme.

The St Helens Newspaper wrote at the time: "Not only are children kept alive but they suffer less, owing to more skilful treatment, and the saving in illness and loss of life is a great boon all round."

A doctor in Victorian times attempts to treat a measles sufferer (Image: Supplied) Home nursing prevented the development of a septic condition in the mouths of measles sufferers that often caused respiratory complications and led to death.

The district nurses' intervention also ensured the early removal of potentially serious cases from overcrowded homes to the town's isolation/fever hospital in Peasley Cross.

But it did not take long before complacency set in - a parallel that might be made with today.

During an 8-week period between February and April 1929, there were 35 deaths in St Helens from measles.

Dr Frank Hauxwell was then the town's Medical Officer of Health and he blamed parents for not summoning a doctor to attend their sick child: "Measles is a dangerous disease.

"People in general do not realise the seriousness of it and are inclined to allow it to develop into a serious stage before they will even call in a doctor.

"It is a disease which, if not attended to in its early stages, may lead to much more serious developments, and many people today are suffering the effects of an attack of measles that was not dealt with at the proper time."

William Finch's original headstone read: "Minister of this Church 29 years. He established the vaccine inoculation in these parts, A.D. 1799 and died Sept 4, 1815 (Image: Supplied) Although it was not uncommon for poorer people to not seek medical help when ill because of the cost of treatment, both the home nursing scheme and care at the isolation hospital were completely free, with St Helens Corporation footing the bill.

But as well as a lack of understanding of the dangers of measles, Dr Hauxwell felt some parents were prejudiced against the scheme through not wanting nurses to enter their home - and some doctors were failing to promote it.

The introduction of a vaccine in 1968 was a game changer in the fight against measles but today's high level of unvaccinated youngsters - particularly on Merseyside - is a cause of grave concern.

And St Helens has a proud history of vaccination, with the Rev William Finch feted as a pioneer.

Finch served as the minister of the St Helens Chapel from 1786 until his death in 1815.

Why a churchman felt qualified to administer vaccines, I cannot say for certain.

But Rev Finch appears to have been motivated by the reluctance of local doctors to get involved in a contentious topic, with unfounded fears that vaccines caused diphtheria.

An entry in the church's baptismal register for 1799 reads: "David, son of David Scarborough, Clogger, St Helens.

"This child on the seventeenth of November following was the first in these parts that was inoculated with vaccine matter.

"Per me, W. Finch, Minister."

By March 1800 the highly regarded Finch is believed to have vaccinated 714 individuals against smallpox with regular sessions held at the workhouse in what became Baldwin Street.

The Lancaster Gazette in its brief obituary on Finch that was published on September 23, 1815, revealed that the churchman was a vaccination pioneer for the county of Lancashire - and not just St Helens: "DEATHS - On the 4th inst. whilst on a visit to his friends in London, the Rev William Finch, Rector of St. Helen's, near Warrington; the earliest promoter of vaccination in this county, who, notwithstanding he was universally opposed by the medical practitioners in that quarter, was at length completely victorious."