74 NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: MAN OF PEACE

very fortunate in its Medical Officer of Health, Sir
John Robertson. Of him Mr. Chamberlain was a
warm admirer and a keen supporter. He had an
exceptional personal reason for interesting himself
in anything which was calculated to reduce the rates
of maternal mortality. He is entitled to a large share
of the credit for the ante-natal clinics which were
then set up in Birmingham for the treatment of
expectant mothers. These clinics were voluntary,
but received the active support of the health com-
mittee of the Council. Nor did he neglect the cultural
and recreational side of the city's life. During the
period when he was councillor and during his Lord
Mayoralty he was instrumental in securing the exten-
sion of the Art Gallery and the completion of the
Natural History Collection. Another of his own
personal interests was reflected when he influenced
the formation of a municipal orchestra.

All this was in the piping days of peace. It is
true that impending Armageddon was casting its
long shadow ever further across the peaceful scene.
But few save the most prescient had eyes to see it or
ears to hear the distant rumbling of War. For
Neville Chamberlain they were years of happy family
life, busy public activity devoted to the constructive
things of peace. He and his wife had taken a pleasant
and comfortable home in Westbourne Avenue in a
residential part of the city, and here their two children
Dorothy and Frank were born. It was this daughter
Dorothy who was to make Mr. Chamberlain a grand-
father in the crisis month of 1938. But the outbreak
of war, which quickened the tempo of national life,
had the effect of slowing down the work of the
Birmingham City Council. Nevertheless it did no-
thing to diminish the importance and responsibility
of the Chief Magistrate of the City. This office was
held at the outbreak of war by Mr, Chamberlain's