Jeffries, Len

Leonard Jeffries was tried and sentenced to 3 years in prison in 1933 after being arrested along with 3 fellow Communists on January 28 1933. His colleagues were Charles Stead (sentenced to 21 months hard labour); Samuel Paddock (sentenced to 15 months hard labour) and Ernest Whatley (sentenced to 12 months hard labour). The group of men were charged on ten counts, the last of which was of unlawfully conspiring to seduce soldiers from their duty and allegiance to the King. The charges related to discussions with soldiers and the production of two pamphlets entitled 'The Soldier's Voice' which urged direct action to be taken by soldiers in response to cuts in their pay and called for the destruction of capitalism and the establishment of a Soviet Britain.

Len Jeffries had been a coal-miner and later on a clerk. He was an active Communist Party member and took an active part in Cardiff in the Seamen's Minority Movement. He also had connections with the Labour League of Ex-Servicemen. Len visited Russia, returning to Wales in 1931 to be appointed acting District Organiser for South Wales (Communist Party) in the absence of Charles Stead who was in Russia. He had been in trouble with the law before 1933, having been sentanced in 1931 to 8 months imprisonment for riot, unlawful assembly and assaulting the police. These previous convictions are the reason for his heavy sentence in 1933 in comparison to his fellows.

From the guide to the Len Jeffries, 1902-c1960, (Swansea University)