by Jason Lever
Posted on Fri, 13 Dec 2013 16:41:10 GMT
Solomon and Annie Lever
(This chapter is based on his correspondence file accessed in Hackney Archives.)
Solomon Lever was elected by his fellow councillors Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney for a term of one year in 1951/2. This traditional, largely ceremonial role in municipal government is usually filled by a councillor who has undertaken more onerous duties by serving on key committees of the council.
(Left to right: Mayoress of Hackney (Annie), Lord Mayor of London, Lady Mayoress of London and Mayor of Hackney (Solomon))
One letter of congratulations was received from A.G. Tomkins OBE, the general secretary of the National Union of Furniture Trade Operatives. Solomon Lever’s reply, dated 12 June 1951, said that ‘...I think I will cherish this one more than any [congratulations], because it is from the General Secretary of my Trade Union, a Trade Union on which all my activities in public matters began and where I have received my apprenticeship’.
From the active citizenry of the borough, Mayor Lever was sought at an events of the Dalston and District Aquaria Society. While members of this group presumably studied and collected tropical fish, on the consumption front, he was also invited and gave a speech at the North West London Herring Week at the LEB Showrooms.
As President of the Disabled Soldiers and Sailors (Hackney) Foundation, he was sent their annual report; similarly, the annual report of the Toynbee [Hall] International Motorcyclists Association was posted to to Solomon Lever, its Vice-President.
Rather grand appeared his invitation to an art exhibition at ‘Windsor Castle’. The clue was in the speech marks, for this was Windsor Castle on the Lower Clapton Road, Hackney, E5, not the residency of King George and family.
The north of England successfully beckoned the Mayor of Hackney to Leeds, for a Special Chanukah Neshef and Dinner held by the Leeds Poale Zion Workers Circle (Div 5). It helped to have some connections, as Mayor Lever had long-standing involvement in Poale Zion and The Workers Circle.
Similarly, he was minded to attend the annual dinner and ball of the Jews’ Free School (JFS) Association at the Savoy Hotel in February 1952 – that he was recently found to have been an alumnus was highlighted in the invitation.
comments powered by