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16
THE HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTARY INFANT WELFARE
MOVEMENT.
(Mrs. Grundy, M.B.E.)
It was in 1906 that Mr. Hancock Nunn, Hon. Sec. of the Hampstead
Health Committee, suggested the formation of a committee to organise
the friendly visiting of mothers with infants on the east side of the
Borough. Dr. McCleary, the M.O.H., was thoroughly in sympathy
with the suggestion, and became a member of the Infant Welfare Com¬mittee,
of which Dr. Collingwood Andrews was Chairman and Mrs.
Phospher Mallam and Mrs. Grundy were hon. sees.
Information of babies was obtained from Church Maternity Societies,
District Visitors, Mothers' Meeting Superintendents, Public Health
Departments, etc. Several doctors gave lectures to the visitors, who
reported their cases at fortnightly meetings to Dr. McCleary or to Mrs.
Fisher, the Lady Sanitary Inspector. In 1907, about 60 babies were
on the visiting list.
In 1908 the first Mothers' Welcome for weighing infants was opened
at the Provident Dispensary in New End. The Lady Inspector was in
charge with a voluntary helper. Also in this year a Visitors' Committee
was formed for the area west of Finchley Road and a Mothers' Welcome
opened at the Hemstal Road Creche.
In 1913 the East and West Committees combined under the chairman¬ship
of Dr. Claude Taylor, and the babies were still visited by voluntary
visitors.
In 1914, a Medical Officer attended the Welcomes and the supervision
of children up to five years was undertaken whose record cards were passed
on to the School Medical Officer; the East Hampstead Welcome was
moved to Lyndhurst Hall, Rosslyn Hill.
In 1916, Welcomes were opened at the Wesleyan Church Hall, Lisburne
Road, and at the Friends' Meeting House, Heath Street, in place of the
one at Lyndhurst Hall. Another was opened at the Health Institute,
Kilburn—making four Welcomes or Centres in all.
The Health Visitor—Mrs. Roche, paid the first visit to the home and,
where needed, this was followed up by a Voluntary Visitor, until the
child was three years old.
It was considered desirable to extend the educational scale of the
Welfare Work and Miss Atherton was appointed as Educational Organiser
for the Centres. She soon started Home Makers' Guilds, with lectures
and classes, clothes stalls, savings banks, milk sales, at all the Centres.
In 1920, a Centre was opened in the Belsize district at New College
Chapel, Swiss Cottage. This was later moved to St. Paul's Church Hall,
Avenue Road.
A system of Mothers' Helps was organised for all the Centres.
In 1921, the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee appointed
Health Visitors, and visits paid by Voluntary Visitors were discontinued.
In 1923 Dr. Claude Taylor resigned the chairmanship of the Infant
Welfare Committee ; Mrs. Grundy was elected as Chairman and Miss
Macdonald as Vice-Chairman.
In 1928 the Kilburn Centre held at the Health Institute was overcrowded
and it was also realised that only a few of the mothers from
Netherwood Street and Palmerston Road, the poorest streets in the