The funeral of Elizabeth Rutherford Greenslaw, a British Fascist. The coffin is carried
by women members of the group. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
by women members of the group. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The above photograph was taken around 1934/1935 after the group had gone into serious decline. Note the Union Jack and the British Fascists' own flag.
The British Fascists, led by Rotha Lintorn-Orman, had faced a major split in 1932 over the issue of a merger with Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party. The proposal was accepted by Neil Francis Hawkins of the British Fascists Headquarters Committee and his allies, Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. Johnson and E. G. Mandeville Roe, although the female leadership turned the proposal down due to objections over serving under Mosley.
As a consequence, Francis Hawkins broke away and took most of the male membership with him. Mosley's New Party became the British Union of Fascists (B.U.F.) soon afterwards.
In a bid to reverse their decline, the British Fascists adopted a strongly anti-semitic platform in the 1930s, becoming outspoken supporters of Hitler's Germany.
Although Oswald Mosley had previously dismissed the British Fascists as "three old ladies and a couple of office boys" their manifesto had become quite hardline by 1933.
British Fascists Statement of Policy, June 1933
Point 2 The abolition of the party system and its replacement by the Corporate State, formed through the Guilds and Corporations of workers, trades, employers and owners.
Point 19 Members of the Jewish race to be classified as aliens, to be debarred from holding official positions in the state, from voting and from controlling the financial, political, industrial and cultural interests of the British people.
Point 21 A law penalising coloured men cohabiting with white women in this country.
Although Oswald Mosley had previously dismissed the British Fascists as "three old ladies and a couple of office boys" their manifesto had become quite hardline by 1933.
British Fascists Statement of Policy, June 1933
Point 2 The abolition of the party system and its replacement by the Corporate State, formed through the Guilds and Corporations of workers, trades, employers and owners.
Point 19 Members of the Jewish race to be classified as aliens, to be debarred from holding official positions in the state, from voting and from controlling the financial, political, industrial and cultural interests of the British people.
Point 21 A law penalising coloured men cohabiting with white women in this country.
In 1933 Lord and Lady Downe, as representatives of the British Fascists, entertained Nazi German envoy Gunther Schmidt-Lorenzen at their country estate and suggested to him that the Nazis should avoid any links with Mosley, whom Lady Downe accused of being in the pay of Jewish figures such as Baron Rothschild and Sir Philip Sassoon.
However, the following year, in 1934, Lady Downe started speaking at B.U.F. meetings and formally joined the B.U.F. in February 1937.
By 1934, Lintorn-Orman's mother had cut her off financially after hearing lurid tales of debauchery involving the female fascist leader. As a result, the group fell into debt until being declared bankrupt in 1934 when a Colonel Wilson called in a £500 loan.
This effectively brought the British Fascists to a conclusion, with Rotha Lintorn-Orman dying the following year.
References:
The British Union of Fascists in North Norfolk
Wikipedia
References:
The British Union of Fascists in North Norfolk
Wikipedia
