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commenced at 587, Commercial Road.E. It was the second infant welfare
centre to be opened in London. This Infant Welfare, and School for
Mothers continued to operate until taken over by the Borough Council
in 1946. In 1911, the Centre held a clinic every Tuesday with two
medical men in attendance, and there were also classes in sewing,
cooking, and home nursing.
During the 1914-18 war the Centre assisted in evacuating mothers
and babies to the country and in 1917 the Board of Education nado
a grant which was continued in the post-war years by the Ministry of
Health for the expansion of the service.
There was considerable co-operation between the Health Committee
and the voluntary Infant Welfare Centres and the Council's Health
Visitor worked in association with the voluntary Health Visitor of the
Stepney School for Mothers and between them they thus covered Limehouse,
Ratcliffe and Shadwell. Attached to the centre there was a small
residential nursery for backward infants, which closed at the beginning
of the war and has been greatly missed.
In 1909 there were the following voluntary Creches (Day Nurseries)
in Stepney: Dr.Barnardo's (Marie Hilton) Creche, 50 children; Jewish
Nursery at New Road, 35-50 children; George Yard Centre, 18-20 children,
and 154, St. George's St root, 10-18 children. The St. Paul's Day
Nursery, Wellclose Square, the only one of these Day Nurseries which
is still operating in the Borough, was then taking 18-20 children.
Sister Dorothy Reilly, the present devoted matron, has been in charge
for 22 years.
About 1912 the body known as the St.George's and Wapping Infant
Care Committee had infant consultation centres at nine different
addresses, with Doctors in attendance at each.
In 1911, Dr.Thomas was pressing for the appointment of a second
Borough Health Visitor. In Great Britain there were many unpaid.
persons helping with infant welfare, but in 1913 there were only 470
salaried Health Visitors in England and Wales.
The Council adopted the 1909 Notification of Births (Extension)
Act in-1912. The Notification of Births (Extension) Act of 1915
enabled half the cost of infant welfare schemes to be paid from
Government grants, and in 1916 a second Municipal Health Visitor was
appointed by the Borough Council.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, enablod any local
authority within the meaning of the Notification of Births Act, 1907,
to make such arrangements as might be sanctioned by the Local Government
Board for attending to the health of expectant and nursing mothers
and of. children who had not attained the age of 5 years and were not
being educated in schools recognised by the Board of Education.
The provisions of the Act of. 1918 were adoptive and the Council,
on 26th March, 1919, upon a report by the Public Health Committee
decided to adopt the provisions of the Act for the Borough of Stepney.
As the result of this decision there was set up for the first time the
Maternity and Child Welfare Committee which held its first meeting on
the 26th March, 1919. (The final meeting was on the 22nd Juno, 1948).
(vi)