1900-1959
In the first half of the 20th Century health provision in Aberchirder – by doctors and pharmacists and the Rose Innes Hospital – continued to be organised privately until the creation of the National Health Service in 1947, although central and local government became increasingly involved in improving public health. The 1920s saw the peak of the temperance movement – most famously in the United States with Prohibition – and Aberchirder came close to becoming ‘dry’.
Welfare, however, saw an ever-increasing involvement of central and local government. Significant changes were made in poor relief, while self-help organisations – friendly societies and, from 1924, its own masonic lodge – continued to play an important part in the lives of ordinary people in Aberchirder and district.