Honour for ‘Lion of Hull’ who towered over city’s politics

And now Hull Council has finally paid tribute to Sir Leo Schultz, a former council leader and Lord Mayor, by erecting a statue of him at the Guildhall.

Born in 1900, Sir Leo grew up in Holderness Road and the poverty he witnessed led him to become a committed socialist and social reformer.

He demonstrated his exceptional intelligence at the age of 15 when he achieved the highest mark of all candidates in an entry exam for the Oxbridge universities – but was told he should not have entered because of his working-class background and Jewish faith and was denied a place.

Two years later he was serving in the First World War with the Durham Light Infantry and finished the war as a sergeant, another significant achievement for one so young.

He was elected as a councillor for Myton ward in 1926 and his work as an accountant began to take second place to politics.

His many achievements for Hull included securing £1.5m to build thousands of air raid shelters in the Second World War, saving many lives. He was council leader in all but two years between 1945 and 1979 and was knighted in 1966.