GEORGE LANSBURY

George Lansbury, a one-time leader of the Labour Party, was called 'Public Pacifist Number One' and was one of the few politicians ever formally to move withholding all money from the armed forces, and thereby to abolish them. Perhaps that is why he merits a very modest memorial on the site of his family home which was bombed during the Blitz.

Lansbury was twice Mayor of Poplar and MP for Bromley and Bow. In 1921, he led the Poplar Rates Rebellion. His daughter-in-law, Minnie Lansbury, was one of the 30 Poplar Councillors sent to prison and who died six weeks after leaving prison.

A memorial clock to her is situated over a row of shops on Bow Road, near the junction with Alfred Street.