Felix Jones [Edit]
Felix Jones (1915-2003) founded the earliest gay motorcycle/leather club in Europe in 1965, known as The 69 Club and as SNC London. This was Alan Selby‘s first leather club, and he joined it in 1969 after being introduced to it through Felix. However, as Selby noted, the name was not because of the year but because, “The Club had a constitution that there could never be more than 68 Members, so that there could never be a Member # 69. There was often a waiting list to get in. They had to wait till someone resigned, passed away or was removed from membership through a misdeed.” It was through this club that Selby made the acquaintance of fellow associate Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, and they remained friends until Tom’s passing. Selby also recalled how his days with the club were to shape his future as a mentor: “I learned a lot very quickly from my fellow Club Members, and this helped me in later years to pass on advice to novices who often came to me with questions.”
Felix and The 69 Club were essential to the founding of the European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (ECMC), a European confederation of gay leather and fetish clubs founded in 1974.
Honors
In 2002, the European Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (ECMC) gave Felix their highest honor, the title of “Honorary Patron”.
Felix was an honorary member of The 15 Association from 1985 until he died in 2003.
In 2015 Felix was posthumously inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.
In 2023 The 69 Club, which had ended in December 2021, was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.
Personal Life
Felix and his partner Jim Farant lived in the United States in the 1980s.