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| Undertaker who had key role
in plot that tricked the Nazis |
Head of family leaves journal of
his life to eighth generation in charge of firm
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Ivor Leverton
A scene from The Man Who Never Was
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FUNERAL director Ivor Leverton, who has died aged 91, oversaw
the burials of thousands of Camden residents, but also played a
minor but vital role in one of the most ingenious hoaxes in military
history.
Born in 1914, opposite the family business in Oakley Square, Mornington
Crescent, he was bitterly disappointed that his chronic asthma ruled
him out of active service in World War II.
Instead, he worked for the already five-generations-old family funeral
business and volunteered as a firefighter.
Fate provided him with an opportunity to contribute to the war effort
abroad when the Allied forces hatched a cunning plot that was to
be chronicled in the 1956 hit movie The Man Who Never Was.
British top brass came up with a plan to disguise a dead man as
an officer carrying letters between British and American generals.
The aim was to suggest to the Nazi leadership that the Allies had
decided to launch an attack on the European mainland from Sardinia
and Greece, and not from Sicily, the spot chosen for the Allied
invasion.
The body, complete with fake identity documents, pictures of sweethearts
and bogus letters, was to be dumped from a submarine off the Spanish
coast to give the impression of drowning, in the hope that the Spanish
would pass the letters to the Germans.
The plan called for one particularly sensitive detail – a convincing
body. It was here that Mr Leverton came in. Working at the direction
of St Pancras coroner Sir Bentley Spence, he moved the body of a
34-year-old pneumonia victim, who fitted the operation’s needs,
across London, maintaining absolute discretion and secrecy.
The family agreed to release his body on the understanding that
he would ultimately be given a proper burial and would never be
identified, although the officer in charge, Lt Cmdr Ewen Montagu,
did write in 1977 that “he was a bit of a ne’er-do-well,
and... the only worthwhile thing that he ever did he did after his
death”.
Some historians have since identified the body as that of a Welshman,
Glyndwr Michael.
The plan, codenamed Mincemeat, worked perfectly, leading the Germans
to neglect the defences in Sicily. The body was eventually returned
by the Spanish and buried properly in London.
Mr Leverton had married Dorothy Naylor, always known as Pat because
she was born on St Patrick’s Day, in 1936.
Their first son, Keith, arrived in 1938 while the couple lived in
Oakley Square, and two more sons, Clive and Neil, were born during
and immediately after the war, by which time the couple had moved
to Hampstead Garden Suburb.
Mr Leverton worked as an undertaker until 1989, and maintained a
strong commitment to many community organisations, including Hampstead
Garden Suburb Fellowship, St Pancras Rotary Club and the Worshipful
Companies of Upholders and Wheelwrights. He served as president
of the London Association of Funeral Directors.
In 1971, he suffered a devastating blow when Pat was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease. Declining professional assistance, he
nursed her through her last years, while remaining in full-time
work, until her death in 1983.
Four years later he married Mary Jolliffe, whose first husband had
died within days of Pat. They spent 14 happy years together before
her death in 1997.
His final years were spent in pursuit of a series of new interests,
including art, history and the theatre, and he continued to attend
every Arsenal home game at his beloved Highbury, witnessing their
double-winning 1998 season and the Premiership campaign in 2003-4
when they went through the season unbeaten.
He was admitted to hospital early last month and died on August
27, leaving a journal of his life and times.
His grandson and granddaughter maintain his legacy at the family
business as the eighth generation of Levertons. |
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