Arthur Lever Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Sir
Arthur Lever
Honorific-Suffix:1st Baronet
Constituency Mp:Hackney Central
Term Start:15 November 1922
Term End:16 November 1923
Predecessor:William Woolcock
Successor:Leonard Benjamin Franklin
Constituency Mp1:Harwich
Term Start1:8 February 1906
Term End1:10 February 1910
Predecessor1:James Round
Successor1:Harry Newton
Birth Date:17 November 1860
Birthname:Arthur Levy
Nationality:British
Party:National Liberal
Otherparty:Liberal

Sir Arthur Levy Lever, 1st Baronet (17 November 1860 – 23 August 1924), known as Arthur Levy until 1896, was a British Liberal Party politician.

Background

Born Arthur Levy, a son of Joseph Levy, of Leicester. He was educated at University College School and privately. In 1896 he married Beatrice Falk.[1] In 1900, they had a son, Tresham Joseph Philip Lever. Beatrice died in 1917.[2] He assumed the surname of Lever in lieu of Levy by deed poll in 1896 and by Royal licence in 1911.

Military career

He joined the army. He served with the 2nd V.B. Royal Fusiliers. He reached the rank of Major before retiring.[3] Following the outbreak of war in 1914, he was re-commissioned. He served in the European War as a Major in the 2/1st Battalion London Regiment of the Royal Fusiliers. He then moved to serve on the Headquarters’ Staff, Southern Command, with rank of Colonel. He was Deputy Director of Recruiting for South-Eastern Region in 1917.[4]

Political career

Lever was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich in 1906.

He served as a Justice of the Peace in Essex. In 1906 he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and Afforestation, serving until 1911. He lost his Harwich seat to the Conservatives at the January 1910 General Election. At the December 1910 General Election he stood unsuccessfully at Wolverhampton South.[5]

In 1911 he was made a Baronet, of Hans Crescent in Chelsea. He was a Member of the London War Pensions Committee.He was returned to the House of Commons at the 1922 general election as National Liberal MP for Hackney Central,

He stood down at the 1923 general election.

His elder brother Maurice Levy was also a Liberal politician and was created a Baronet in 1913.

Election results

Notes and References

  1. Liberal Yearbook, 1907
  2. ‘LEVER, Col Sir Arthur Levy’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 12 Jan 2014
  3. Liberal Yearbook, 1907
  4. ‘LEVER, Col Sir Arthur Levy’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 12 Jan 2014
  5. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)