Cecil Levita

Cecil Bingham Levita
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/wars	Second Matabele War Second Boer War World War I
Awards	K.C.V.O. C.B.E.
Relations	Lieutenant Colonel Harry Plumridge Levita c.1862-1919 (brother)

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Cecil Bingham Levita, KCVO, CBE (18 January 1867 – 10 October 1953) was a British soldier and public service worker who eventually rose to be chairman of the London County Council in 1928.

Life and career

Family

Levita's father Emile George Charles Levita (Morgenie, Germany, c. 1828/c. 1829 - 27 Ennismore Gardens, London SW, London, 21 July 1909) was a German-born merchant and banker who had emigrated to Manchester in the 1850s. He served as a director of The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969. The Levita family was of Ashkenazi Jewish origin and was related to the German-Jewish Goldsmid banking family. Emile's British born-wife (Cecil's mother), whom he married in Manchester in 1860 was Katherine Plumridge Rée (Rusholme, Manchester, 1842 - 1897), daughter of Hermann Philip Rée (from an illustrious Danish Jewish family) and Catherine German, niece of Admiral James Hanway Plumridge. The 1861 Census lists the 32 year old Emile and his 18 year old wife having a household, including 4 domestic servants, at Stretford, Lancs. In the 1891 census, then living in Knightsbridge, London, Emile and his 2 sons Arthur and Claud, described themselves as merchants, his domestic staff having increased to 9. In the 1901 census he described himself as a banker, as did his 2nd. son Arthur, whilst youngest son Claude had become a member of the London Stock Exchange trading on his own account. Eldest son Harry was then Captain -Army Officer (Reserves). His household establishment had grown to 11, although now catering for Emile, his 3 sons and 1 da. in law.

Career

Cecil Levita attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1886. He started his career as a soldier serving in the Second Matabele War and the Second Boer War where he was A.D.C. to Lieutenant-General Sir Baker Russell. He was later appointed a special service officer and a D.A.A.G. in the Natal Field Force. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Queen's medal with three clasps. He was later to serve as G.S.O. Grade 1 in World War I.

In 1910 Levita contested the St. Ives division of Cornwall in the General Election but was unsuccessful. However, in 1911 he was elected to the London County Council as a Municipal Reformer, where he served for over 25 years serving on numerous committees including serving as chairman of the housing committee and chairman of the London County Council from 1928 to 1929. He was largely responsible for founding the King George Hospital in Ilford and also took a great interest in education, being a particular proponent of the use of the new medium of film for educational use.

His career was somewhat overshadowed by an episode in 1936 which became known as the "Talking Mongoose Case". Levita had alleged that Richard S. Lambert, the founding editor of The Listener was unfit to serve on the board of the British Film Institute (on which his wife served) because Lambert had published an article about a house which was supposedly haunted by Gef the talking mongoose. Lambert then brought an action for slander against Levita which he continued to pursue despite pressure from Sir Stephen Tallents, controller of administration and the chairman of the BBC Ronald Collet Norman who was a friend of Levita's. Lambert won substantial damages and the case prompted an enquiry launched by then Prime Minister into the rights of a public corporation to control the extraneous activities of their employees. The enquiry resulted in practices of the Civil Service being implemented within the BBC.

He was created an MVO in 1901, Knighted in 1929, promoted to KCVO in 1932 and later awarded a CBE. In 1917 he married Florence Woodruff, daughter of William Robb with whom he had one son and one daughter. In 1930 he gave away his niece Enid Agnes Maud Levita (St George, Hanover Square, 10 February 1908 - 1993, daughter of his brother Arthur Francis Levita (Manchester, 1865 - 15 Queen Street, Mayfair, London W, London, 18 November 1910) and wife (m. London, 19 December 1903) Stephanie Agnes Cooper (Enfield, 5 September 1883 - 9 December 1918) at her marriage at St Mark's, North Audley Street, London, on 17 December 1930 to Ewen Donald Cameron (Kensington, 1906 - memorial service St Michael's, Cornhill, 25 June 1958, the grandparents of the Conservative party leader David Cameron, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2010. The couple eventually divorced by 20 September 1946, when he remarried.