Ferdinand Louis Kerran

Ferdinand Louis Kerran , also FL Kerran for short, was born in Ferdinand Kehrhan (born August 18, 1883 in Chester , † 1949 ) was a British political activist (Labor Party).

Life and activity

Kerran was the son of a father of German descent and an English mother. In 1906 he joined the Independent Labor Party (ILP). Two years later, in 1908, he also became a member of the Social Democratic Federation , which eventually evolved into the British Socialist Party (BSP), in which Kerran was part of the left wing.

In 1913, Kerran became his party's National Trading Secretary. During these years he earned his living running a photography business.

During the First World War Kerran was interned by the authorities because of his descent. In November 1916 he managed to escape internment custody and, disguised as a sailor, escaped to New York City on the SS Adriatic steamer . After he was arrested, he was sentenced to three months in prison. This sentence was eventually lifted and he was sent back to the detention center. In 1918 he volunteered to travel to Germany as a British agent in order to help spark a revolutionary mood in the population, which he was denied.

In 1920 Kerran joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) with the majority of BSP supporters , and he was accepted into the first executive committee of the party. In 1922 he took part as a delegate at the Third World Congress of the Communist International.

In 1923, Kerran left the Communist Party after the Labor Party decided not to allow double party membership from now on.

On the occasion of the British general election in 1924 Kerran ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Labor Party in the constituency of Hull North West for a seat in the House of Commons , the British Parliament. Further candidacies for parliament in the elections of 1929 and 1931 (in the constituency of Stoke Newington) and 1935 (in the constituency of Luton) also failed.

Instead, Kerran increased his activist engagement in the second half of the 1930s: for example, he advised the Albanian King Zog on questions relating to fascism. And in 1939 he traveled to Germany, where he helped local Jews to leave the country.

Due to his anti-Nazi activities and his position as a former communist functionary, Kerran was targeted by the National Socialist police officers in 1940 at the latest, who classified him as an important target: In spring 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people belonging to the NS - Regarded the surveillance apparatus 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 should be located and arrested by the special SS commandos following the occupation troops with special priority.

literature

• The Labor who's who 1927 , 1927, p. 123.

Individual evidence

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