Sowerbutt's Boots

"Loads of army surplus stuff after the war," the retired writer for the East London Pioneer, who still has the notebook from his early 1960s interview with Jimmy Sowerbutt, said. "They'd ordered loads of stuff for the war with Japan but the Bomb put paid to that. One of Jimmy's mates in the Tower Hamlets Rifles at Bow tipped him off about a warehouse full of boots that was being sold off. He had a sticky beak at the other bids, but put his own in and got the boots. Reckoned he paid about half-a-crown a pair. Sold them in the markets and the pubs for £2, sometimes as low as £1 15/-. Made a killing. Great quality, you'd still see them being worn in the streets 20 years later."
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