THIS crowd looks very cheerful considering they are queuing up to be vaccinated against smallpox after an outbreak in Glasgow in April 1950.

Many thousands queued for up to 12 hours at the city's clinics and hospitals for the vaccine when the disease struck 22 people.

It was thought the outbreak could be traced to a sailor from India who had recently arrived in the city, and one woman had already died.

Extra supplies of the vaccine were flown in from London to meet the demand, and at the height of the vaccination programme, 13,500 people were seen in a single day.

Smallpox was an often fatal disease dreaded for centuries before the discovery of vaccination by the scientist Edward Jenner, and is the only disease to have been totally eradicated by mankind.