| AdminHistory | Charles William Key (1883-1964), schoolmaster, politician and Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar.
Charles Key's father died when he was six and his mother took in a lodger, Ernest Linder who paid for Charles to go for training at the Mile End Pupil Teachers' School, Essex Street, Mile End. Returning from the army in 1919 he settled in Poplar and began his career as a member of Poplar Borough Council which continued until 1940. He was the only person to have been Mayor of Poplar three times: 1923-1924, 1928-1929 (second term), 1932-1933 (third term). He was presented with the freedom of the Borough of Poplar on 9 November 1953.
Charles Key was headmaster of Dingle Lane School, Pennyfields, resigning this position to enter politics full-time, with the Labour Party.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Bow and Bromley in 1940 and retained the seat for 24 years. He became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health 1945-1946 and Ministry of Works 1947-1950.
In the Second World War he was Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence.
He was sent to Brixton prison with other Poplar Councillors in 1921 for refusing to levy Poplar's share of the London County Council, Police and Metropolitan Asylum contributions on the grounds that local rate payers were already impoverished with high levels of unemployment. He explained the councillors' position in his pamphlet - 'Guilty and Proud of It; Poplar's Answer'. He later was Labour candidate in the general election in 1950.
He was commemorated by Charles Key Lodge, Southern Grove, Mile End, a home for disabled people.
Source includes: 'The Tower Hamlets Connection. A Biographical Guide' by Harold Finch, 1996. |