"Look the East End in the Face"

[Fred Shapiro]

The following is the earliest documented reference I have found to a
famous World War II quotation:

[<i>To a London policeman, 13 Sept. 1940:</i>] I'm glad we've been
bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.
quoted in Betty Spencer Shew, <i>Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother</i>
(1955)

Is anyone able to supply any earlier references?  I have already searched
"look the East End in the face" in ProQuest Historical Newspapers,
Newspaperarchive and Times Digital Archive.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
    Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org