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13
steady progress. In 1928 a new child welfare centre was erected
in White Hart Lane, to take the place of all the clinics held in
church halls throughout the district, except that in Alexandra Park.
In 1931 the first full-time Assistant Medical Officer for maternity
and child welfare and school medical work was appointed, an
appointment which made it possible to devote more time to these
expanding services. In 1929 immunisation of children under
school age, and of school children was commenced, and has been
carried on ever since as a routine measure. For the past twenty
years there has been a slow but steady development of the maternity
and child welfare service. In 1938 four Council midwives were
appointed by arrangement with Middlesex County Council, the local
supervising authority under the Midwives Acts. In 1939 on the
outbreak of war the day nursery at Stuart Villa was evacuated to
Essex, and in 1942 and 1943 respectively, war-time day nurseries
were opened at St. Michael's Infant School and in White Hart Lane.
In 1947 a new child welfare centre was opened in Gordon Road,
which has already proved very useful in the Bounds Green area.
With the slow but steady development of the child welfare
service, there has been a steady but very definite improvement in
the state of the child population, in which it can be claimed that
the medical and nursing staff of the Council have played some part.
In their work they have been supported and encouraged at all times
by the members of the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee, who
have shown an active interest in the work. During the twenty years
I have been associated with the work I have had as Chairmen of
the Committee, Mrs. Bolster, Mrs. Duncan, Mr. Anderton, Mrs.
Vant and Mrs. Harrison. To all these I have been much indebted
for the keen interest they have shown in the work and the support
they have always given to the efforts of the staff. I am also indebted
to all the members of the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee,
to the voluntary workers at the Welfare Centres whose help has
always been of the very greatest value to the Health Visitors, and
to all the staff of the Health Department, the Maternity and Child
Welfare Centres, and the Day Nurseries.
Statistical evidence of the success of the efforts of all concerned
may be seen in the fact that the Infantile Mortality Rate, which in
the year before the first health visitor was appointed was 103 per
1,000 live births, has exceeded 40 per 1,000 only once in the past