EAST END’S “GOOD FAIRY”

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1928, Page 11

EAST END’S “GOOD FAIRY”

SOCIAL WORK FOR 36 YEARS

“Fairy-Godmother of the Ward of St. George in the East End of London!” This is the proud and happy title held by Miss Hannah Hyam, who lately completed 36 years of social work in the East End. To fittingly mark the occasion she has been presented with a cheque for £lOO and an album signed by 600 of her friends. Miss Hyam recently had a holiday, but she was hard at work again as soon as she returned. “I feel much safer in the East End of London at night than in the West End,” she said. “1 don’t know why people think it is it dreadful place. I have spent practically all my life here, and I have never seen anything very dreadful in the streets. Yet quite recently when T asked a teacher to come here she declined with a shudder.” Miss Hyam says she considers that St. George’s is a changed place in these days compared with a generation ago. “I recall when children ran about the streets barefooted, and when in a school you could see a whole class of children without boots,” she said. “At Berners Street school we used to have to give 150 dinners to children daily; now less than a. score are given. The people’s homes arc cleaner, healthier and better furnished. The children are very keen to go to school, and truancy is almost unknown.” “Then there are the social settlements and different organisations which brighten things up. It is a great help to get educated people down in the East End forming social centres and helping in the work with councils, guardians, Labour Exchanges, and juvenile advisory committees.

“Our greatest task in the East End is to place the young people in suitable employment. In St. George’s there are a number of skilled trades calling for apprentices—tailoring, boot-making, and dressmaking—but we have real difficulty with the dull and the clever children. It is a tremendous difficulty to get a clever boy into a situation where his brains and

ideas will toll. We manage to get them into architects’ offices, banks, and into the professions. Sometimes they become scholars, but when they get their degrees they often have difficulty in getting work. “Some boys try to follow boxing as a profession, but it is a short-lived one and one with little reward. 1 say this in spite of the fact that Kid Lewis was in one of my classes! We do not encourage professional boxing.” “Miss Hyam is a wonderful woman” said Captain Henriques, warden of the

St. George’s .Jewish Settlement. to an interviewer. “She lias a tremendous sense of humour, and is a great worker. Sim never gives up anything she sets her mind upon. She lias also an astounding memory, and can recall the names of children in families she .new 20 years ago. She has never been in the limelight, but we are very proud of her. 1