Horatio Leonard (Len) Shevill was the son of an old time banjoist Horatio Randell Shevill    (b 1876) who ran a teaching studio in the Fulham district of London in the 1880s.

Len Shevill entered the profession in the early 1920s and established a teaching studio in Maida Vale from which he conducted a world-wide correspondence course for teaching. the plectrum banjo and tenor-banjo.   He also sold musical accessories and his "own make" of instrument which was named the "Len Shevill Special." These were made for him by J.G Abbott.

In the early 1930s he moved to Bournemouth and here he was active in a playing capacity until about 1950 when he retired from the music profession and took over the management of the Belvedere Hotel.

Picture courtesy of Westley Horner