David Capper

David Capper (born March 2, 1901 in London , † 1974 ) was a British educator and political activist . He was one of the co-founders of the Communist Party of Great Britain .

Life and activity

Capper was the son of Lithuanian emigrants of the Jewish faith who had fled their old homeland due to the persecution of people of their faith / cultural background there.

In his youth, Capper turned to socialist and atheist ideas. In 1917 he received a scholarship to attend King's College in London, where he devoted himself to the study of French language and culture, and eventually earned a French language teacher diploma.

In 1920 Capper took part in the founding congress of the Communist Pary of Great Britain.

From 1922 to 1966 Capper worked as a teacher. Because of his work for the Communist Party and (since 1928) for the Teachers Labor League (TLL), the teachers' union, he had to change his position frequently or was dismissed frequently. So in 1931 he lost a job as a teacher in Gillingham , Kent, as his role in the Communist Party of the school administration seemed disreputable.

Because of his language skills, Capper was appointed International Secretary of the Teachers Labor League in 1930. In this position he turned against the influence of religious institutions on the British education system.

At the end of the 1930s, because of his role in the British communist movement (and probably also because of his Jewish descent according to the National Socialist definition), Capper came under the sights of the police forces of National Socialist Germany, who classified him as an important target: in the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin opened He was then placed on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people whom the Nazi surveillance apparatus regarded as particularly dangerous or important, which is why, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht, they will find special SS commandos with special priority from the occupying forces should be made and arrested.

During World War II, Capper became secretary of the Central Committee of the London Teachers Association, the division of the National Union of Teachers for the area of ​​the British capital. As a representative of the Teachers Labor League, Capper was in charge of drafting and formulating the provisions introduced by the Communist Party in the Educational Act of 1944.

From 1945 to 1956, Capper taught geography (instead of his actual training subject French) at Battersea Grammar School, where he held the rank of Assistant Masters. At the same time he was still active in the London Teachers Association.

literature

• The Labor who's who , 1927, p. 34.

Web links

• Isobel McMillan: Rememberging David Capper, 1901-1974 in: Education For Tomorrow No. 65, 2000 (digitized version)
• [1]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Capper in the special wanted list GB (reproduction on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London)