Arthur Tilden Jeffress (21 November 1905 – 21 September 1961) was an influential gallery owner, collector, and patron of the arts in post-World War II Britain.

[2] BAT was headquartered in London and Albert moved his family to England so that he could help run the new company.

He left the majority of his estate to his wife, two sons and his sister, Anita Jeffress Hill of Berkeley, California.

[7] Jeffress's own interest was mainly in automotive aesthetics, leading to his ownership of first a Kissel, then, aged 28, his first Rolls-Royce, a two-seater 20/25 convertible (GGA29) with coachwork by the Carlton Carriage Company.

The party continued until dawn, but represented, with the arrival of the depression, the end of the heyday of the Bright Young Things.

[15] During much of the 1930s, Jeffress's boyfriend was John Deakin, an "acid-tongued... wit",[16] later a photographer of Soho in the 1950s who also influenced Arthur's art collecting.

[27] After a few days of captivity, the Atlantis rendezvoused with another German ship, the Dresden; the captured passengers and crew were transferred to this ship, where conditions were difficult- all the men were confined to a cramped space below deck (108 men in a 50x50 ft space), and food was scarce and poor.

The former would be transported to POW camps until the end of the war; the latter placed under house arrest in a small hotel at Biarritz commandeered by the Nazis.

[28] A few weeks later, it was announced that only the BAAC men would remain under house arrest, everyone else handed over to their embassies to be returned home.

Jeffress stayed in New York to recover for a short while; he was determined to contribute to the Nazi defeat, but given the cessation of BAAC activities, he joined the American Field Service (AFS), again as an ambulance driver.

Jeffress reached the rank of captain, moving with his team through Egypt into Libya and then into Italy, at the forefront of the Allied advance.

While she ran the business, Jeffress provided financial backing and gave customers the benefit of his social connections with others in the art world; the two collaborated on the gallery's artistic focus.

[11] Jeffress was an expert marketer of his business, using his extensive social network and personal charm to promote it.

[36] By the late 1950s Jeffress had collected hundreds of pieces of art, although did not consider himself a dedicated expert collector, recognising his idiosyncratic approach.

[35][37] This collection was constantly changing;[35] at various times it included works by Caruso, Chagall, Delacroix, Delft School (painting), Delvaux, Lucian Freud, Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso, Pollock, Rouault, Rousseau, Simbari, Soutine, Sutherland, Weenix, and many others.

It was speculated- this speculation being disdained by those closest to Jeffress- that an incident in Venice, where he lived for a few months each year, had distressed him.

He employed two handsome young gondoliers to transport him around the city; after one grand dinner party, the Duchess of Windsor asked if Jeffress would take her home in his gondola.