The 14th January 1939 issue of Picture Post magazine included a feature on unemployment entitled "They Had No Work". For this article Kurt Hutton took a number of photographs at the Silver Lady's Kitchen in Trafalgar Square, London, where proprietor Betty Baxter (nicknamed 'The Silver Lady' for her donations of a silver sixpence to her many patrons) offered a free meal to the area's homeless.

This is one of a group of strikingly dramatic character studies of the people there, beautifully lit as though by candle or lamp-light. It was part of a feature in Picture Post that gave a human face to poverty and unemployment.

Each portrait subject is identified by name and captioned with a short biographical note. The present photograph was omitted from the published story - perhaps because it is less close up than the published faces - but has a caption on the reverse that is consistent with the other works in the series:

"George Meryle - a dark horse never talks to anyone..... "no mind". "