Leila Campbell (née Jaffe; 10 August 1911 – 2 October 1993) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Labour party politician. She was a former

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

and

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corpor ...

member, and chairman of the

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

Board.

Early life

Campbell was born on 10 August 1911 in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

to parents Rebecca (née Neiman, 1879–1965) and Myer Jaffe (1883–1961). She was educated at the

Belvedere school The Belvedere Academy is an all-ability state-funded girls’ Academy secondary- formerly independent- school in Liverpool, England. Its predecessor, The Belvedere School, was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School. It is non-denominational, ...

, Liverpool, trained to be an art teacher and worked as a dress designer and cutter. During the early 1930s the family lived at 41 Parkfield Road,

Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area w ...

, Liverpool and by 1939, they were living at 5 Devonshire Road, Toxteth.

Career

Campbell was active in the Labour Party from the 1930s. At the

1958 London County Council election An election to the County Council of London took place on 16 April 1958. The council was elected by First Past the Post with each elector having three votes in the three-member seats. The Labour Party, who had already run the council for 24 ye ...

, she was elected in Holborn and St Pancras South, serving until 1964, when it was replaced by the

. On the new body, Campbell represented Camden and also served on

Hampstead Borough Council Hampstead was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Boa ...

and its successor,

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Camden is divided into 18 wards, each electing th ...

, in the Priory ward. She was an alderman on the council from 1971 to 1978. Campbell devoted much of her time to the

, becoming chair of the body in 1977, having served as vice-chair since 1967. She left the role in 1978, and then served on the board of the

, and was its chair from 1985 until a few weeks before her death. During her time on the board, she oversaw the theatre's relocation from Hampstead to a new site in

Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage is an area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, England. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies north-northwest of Charing Cross. The ...

. Campbell was a particular supporter of the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...

. She served as a governor for several schools: Frank Barnes school for the deaf, the Franklin Roosevelt school for the disabled and the

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...

school.

Personal life and death

Campbell moved from Liverpool to South Hill Park,

Belsize Park Belsize Park is an affluent residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden (the inner north-west of London), England. The residential streets are lined with mews houses and Georgian and Victorian villas. Some nearby localities ar ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1940, she married Andrew Campbell, an

election agent An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...

for the Labour party, in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London. The couple had one daughter, lived in Belsize Park, and remained married until the death of her husband in 1968. Her recreations were cooking, theatre, opera and jazz. She would often see a production three times, and after the first occasion invariably murmuring, "That was wonderful, now I have to go away and think about it". Campbell died from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on 2 October 1993 at her home in Belsize Park, London, aged 82. Her funeral was held on 11 October 1993 at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

. In 2007, a plaque was erected at Hampstead Theatre in Campbell's honour, reading "This corner of Hampstead Theatre is dedicated to Leila Campbell (1911 - 1993), Chair and Board member of Hampstead Theatre (1978 - 1991). Remembered with gratitude for her commitment to this theatre and the local area."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Leila 1911 births 1993 deaths Labour Party (UK) councillors Members of the Greater London Council Members of London County Council Women councillors in England Councillors in the London Borough of Camden