Born as Leila Jaffe on 10 August 1911 her birth was registered in Birkenhead, Cheshire. She was the elder daughter of Myers Jaffe (1883-1961) and Rebecca Jaffe née Neiman (1879-1965) and when the 1911 census was taken on 2 April 1911 her parents were living at 16 Stirling Street, Poulton, Cheshire. Her father, a passionate socialist, was a bristle manufacturer. Her sister, Hilda Jaffe (1916-2005) was born on 4 October 1916 and her birth was registered in the West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire registration district. Her sister married a Louis W. Zangwill in 1949 and became a head teacher.
Unfortunately, the 1939 England and Wales Register records her date of birth incorrectly as 10 August 1910 but shows her as a 'dress designer and cutter' living at 5 Devonshire Road, Liverpool with her parents. Her father was now shown as a 'builder patentee' and he was a member of the Air Raid Precautions service.
She was active in the Labour Party from the 1930's and in 1940, in Kensington, she married Frederick Andrew Campbell who was an election agent for the party and a founder of the Campaign for Real Ale. (Oddly, this is mentioned on her Wikipedia page but not on the Campaign's page.)
In 1958 she was elected to the London County Council as a representative for Holborn and St Pancras South. In 1961 she was in addition elected as a member of Hampstead Borough Council. When both the county and borough councils were abolished in 1965, she was elected to the successor authorities as member of the London Borough of Camden and as a representative for >Camden on the Greater London Council. She represented Camden on the Inner London Education Authority where she devoted much of her time serving as their vice-chairman from 1967 to 1977 and as chairman for 1977-78. She was a particular supporter of the Central School of Speech and Drama and from 1978 served on the board of the Hampstead Theatre being its chairman from 1985 to 1991.
Telephone directories from 1971 list her at 56 Belsize Park, London, NW3 and when she died, aged 82 years, on 2 October 1993, probate records show this was still her address. Probate was granted on 23 December 1993 and her estate totalled £161,784.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
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