The most wonderful sight in the Jewish Museum is the huge banner of the London Jewish Bakers Union in the main foyer. Uncle Solly ran the union for over half its history. I grew up knowing of his prominent role in political and community leadership through my father, Charles, who told me his memories of going to the cinema as a child with my Grandpa Manny and seeing Uncle Solly on the newsreels denouncing the re-armament of Germany from the Trades Union Congress podium. He had his plenary addresses at the TUC broadcast to the nation. Among the dusty tomes of the TUC annals in an Oxford University library, I uncovered four, magnificent speeches (1947 - 1958) on the resurgence of fascism after the war and recognition of the State of Israel. 2016 will mark 57 years since Solomon Lever’s death and this was also the diminished number of members the union had on its books by the start of the 1960s. Their general secretary's death in 1959 ‘almost certainly contributed to the eventual collapse of the union' by 1970 according to Larry Wayne's 'Union Bread' (2009). A newspaper article by Peter Whaley, entitled, ‘57 bakers throw in the sponge’, stated that ‘The trade union that just never stopped growing SMALLER and smaller is about to disappear altogether. It is the London Jewish Bakers Union, which has shrunk to only 57 ageing members since refugees from Czarist Russia set it up in the 1890s’. See http://www.unclesolly.co.uk

Through work for the Mayor of London, I stumbled across the wonderful, mayoral portraits on the four corridors surrounding the old council chamber of Hackney Town Hall in Mare Street. The Jewish, black and Asian, and male and female, faces surely form the most diverse line up of mayors in the country. And there among them is Uncle Solly, captured in oils. Based on his 'Mayor's Parlour' correspondencefile accessed in Hackney Archives, I went on to unearth fascinating material in the Mayor's Parlour correspondence in Hackney Council's archives. 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 discovered to have been an alumnus was highlighted in the invitation. Finally, one letter from the Mayor on file was to a certain Mr B Mee, Manager of Arsenal Football Club in April 1952. Being ‘an ardent supporter of the Arsenal since my school days’, he wondered if Mr Mee ‘could kindly spare a couple of tickets for the Mayoress and myself to see Arsenal play in the Cup Final at Wembley’. These were not “freebies” as a cheque of 10/6 was paid for each ticket upon receipt. See http://www.unclesolly.co.uk

Solomon Lever’s phone rang early on the morning of Sunday July 19, 1959. The caller identified himself as a detective and told him thata fire had broken out next to an office he was responsible for (as acting general secretary of The Workers Circle Friendly Society). According to his caller, the building adjacent to the friendly society’s office in Sylvester Path, behind the Hackney Empire, was ablaze. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the bogus detectives said “a police car would be called to take him there to remove any money to a place of safety. Mr Lever dressed and waited. A detective called and Mr Lever went to the waiting car. After binding and gagging him and leaving him in the car the thieves went to the office using Mr Lever’s keys to enter the building. They robbed the safe which contained envelopes made out to individual members of the loan club, and left the premises only a few minutes before the policeman on the beat came along the street.”Two hours later, his body was found in Epping Forest. The cause of death was heart disease or coronary thrombosis. As reported by the Jewish Chronicle (21.08.59) Dr Alan Grant, pathologist, told the inquest that although it was: ‘a natural death... physical hurt, emotional disturbance or mental anguish would be the very worst possible thing having regard to the state of Mr Lever’s heart at the time.' The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter by person or persons unknown. No-one was ever charged. An estimated 2,000 people were at his funeral, including MPs, mayors and councillors and trades unionists. A famous reporter, George Gale (later editor of The Spectator) described Solomon Lever as ‘a man whom the limelight caught twice’ on page 4 of the Daily Express, referring back to Solomon’s famous speech against German rearmament in 1954 at the TUC. He concluded by saying that was ‘just one more death, one more act of lunacy – or panic, or greed. This time it was a good man, a quiet man, a man whose life was given to service’. Four years after his death, Lever Court – a block of 14 maisonettes built a stone’s throw from his old office in Hackney Town Hall – was named after him, with his widow Annie performing the naming ceremony. The fine, blue marble plaque remains in place after nearly 50 years. See http://www.unclesolly.co.uk