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Differences v West End and East End
These Poplar men were quite a new experience for me. I knew the poorest quarters of the West end but the
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west enders were for the most part dependent on the luxury trades; they were servants, flunkeys and those who waited on and ministered to the very rich. The Poplar men were another breed, much more independent, more virile, made of sterner stuff. The men who came to our office were boiler scrapers, dockers, stevedores. There was not cadging, no cringing. They came for their just dues and it was up to us in the pensions office to see that they had that to which they were entitled. It was heartbreaking work, for when they did have their legal due one felt it was really not what they were morally entitled to receive
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