Always interesting to read old stuff like this.
Wooden panelboards, with glass panels in the larger sizes, were quite common in England right up to the 1930s, although they weren't usually asbestos lined. Each plug-in porcelain fuse carrier (rewireable type) typically had a small asbestos insert.
Wooden patresses for light switches were also the norm, and in later years some people even constructed "back boxes" for the newer-style switches using any old scraps of wood.
