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Halesworth had only the slightest influence on George Lansbury. He was born on Feb. 21 1859 in a toll keepers cottage on the Bramfield Road (at the Mells crossing) to George Lansbury and Mary Ann Ferris. His father was the timekeeper of a gang of navvies building the East Suffolk Railway. The railway workers moved camp as the line progressed. The toll keeper Robert Clarke took pity on Mrs Lansbury's condition and provided his cottage for her confinement.

George was baptised in Halesworth church on March 13 and his parents registered their abode as 'The Thoroughfare'. Their lodgings are marked by a plaque above an organic grocer. Shortly after his birth his family moved onto his father's next contract at Sydenham, near Penge. After many years of this nomadic life, the family settled in East London when George was nine.