of the London poor appeared which ranged from

Between the Boer War and the First World War a 'national obsession' with the physical condition of the people proliferated in British public debate. These debates arose out of the sheer disbelief at the dismal performance of nearly half a million British troops in South Africa against just 40,000 Afrikaner farmers. Recruiting statistics exacerbated the alarm confirming that the physical condition of 40 per cent or more of war volunteers rendered them ineligible for service. 13 The primary reasons provided for the appalling state of many volunteers was the continued squalor of urban centres such as Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and, most worrying, London, the 'heart of the empire' .