Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor is Emeritus Professor of Analytical Geography at the University of Nottingham. He studied as both an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Cambridge where he completed his Ph.D. on the geography of HIV/AIDS in 1991. Following academic positions at Cambridge and Exeter, he joined the School of Geography at Nottingham in 1996. He has worked on the historical and contemporary geography of communicable diseases for some 35 years. He has co-authored numerous books with Cliff, including the BMA award-winning Atlas of Epidemic Britain (OUP, 2012) and, most recently, A Geography of Infection (OUP, 2022). Sarah L. Jewitt is Professor of Human Geography and Development at the University of Nottingham. She has longstanding experience of researching health, environment and development-related issues including barriers to adopting improved sanitation and clean cooking systems in low and middle-income contexts. Recent research on how UK government regulations and guidance on reducing the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza is understood by smallscale poultry keepers has informed the co-development of tailored messaging for such groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she trained as a volunteer vaccinator with St John Ambulance and was directly involved in the UK's mass immunisation campaign. Alastair D. Munro is a Teaching Associate in Human Geography at the University of Nottingham. His research explores the spatial dynamics of infectious disease, vaccination, and structural inequality. A specialist in quantitative methods and historical epidemiology, he has contributed insights into the spatial persistence of vaccine-preventable diseases in twentieth-century Britain. His research combines statistical modelling, GIS, and archival data to trace how infectious diseases persist or retreat over time. His published work in Social Science & Medicine and Heliyon spans topics from childhood infections to public health behaviours. Alastair is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Royal Geographical Society. Andrew D. Cliff is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Geography at the University of Cambridge. A graduate of King's College London, he reached Cambridge in 1972 via Northwestern University in the United States and the University of Bristol, England. His earliest studies on demography and the geographies of infectious diseases were with Peter Haggett and Keith Ord at Bristol. This led to a life-long research collaboration with both and, ultimately, also Smallman-Raynor. Cliff is a Fellow of both the British Academy and Academia Europaea. He holds the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers Victoria Medal for research excellence in spatial epidemiology.

• Preface; Abbreviations and acronyms; 1. Vaccines, immunisation and disease control in Britain; Section 1. The Early Target Diseases: 2. Smallpox; 3. Diphtheria; Section 2. Post-War Targets: 4. Whooping cough; 5. Poliomyelitis; 6. Measles, mumps and rubella; Section 3. Retrospect and Prospect: 7. Other diseases and twenty-first century developments; References; Index.