John Nelson Le Fevre

John Nelson Le Fevre was a prize-winner at the Royal Society of Arts and between 1890-1910 was a civil servant working in the War Office, Admiralty, and the pay office of the Supreme Court. After leaving the Government he became a commission agent and later described himself as an accountant, although he was widely known to be a turf accountant (bookmaker) for a while.

It was around that time that saw the start of LeFevre’s life of crime when, in 1912, he was imprisoned for eight months for obtaining money by deception. It was one of five occasions between then and 1935 that he was imprisoned for offences ranging from fraud, obtaining money by false pretences, and bankruptcy offences.

He had a clean criminal record for 12 years between 1912-24, however, and during that time Le Fevre had a fine military record. He was an excellent shot with both rifle and revolver, and received his commission into the Civil Service Rifle Volunteers. He was the honorary secretary of the Regimental Shooting Committee, and also became secretary of the Middlesex Rifle Association, the London & Middlesex Counties Rifle Association and also the Maidstone Rifle Association. He regularly shot at Bisley in military competitions, and won several revolver competitions at club level.

After 12 years in the Volunteers, Le Fevre joined the 24th Middlesex Training Reserve as a sergeant and served in World War I between 1914-17. After the War he got a job as chief clerk of the Kent County War Pensions Committee until ill-health caused his retirement in 1920. Thereafter Le Fevre started what was to be his second wave a criminal activity, which saw him in prison for nearly ten of the next 14 years