British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women

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The British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women (BLESMAW) was a British ex-service organisation that became associated with far-right politics both during and after the Second World War.

Origins[]

The group had its origins in 1937, when set up the group as an alternative to the Royal British Legion.[1] Its main area of concern was the right for military veterans to receive a good pension.[2]

Fascism[]

By 1944 Jeffrey Hamm and Victor Burgess, both members of the British Union of Fascists who had been interned under Defence Regulation 18B, had taken control of the group.[3] The League held its first meeting in Hyde Park on 4 November 1944 at which it promoted itself as a fascist organisation that endorsed racial purity and "Britain for the British", which inspired a hostile reaction from the crowd.[4] Under Hamm and Burgess, the group became active in East London, where it was involved in street violence.[5]

In June 1945 the League was represented at a meeting of the , an initiative led by A. K. Chesterton aimed at forming a united postwar party although the group quickly floundered.[6] By 1946, Hamm was in full control and had expelled Propaganda Director Burgess, whom he viewed as a rival for the leadership, as well as , the League's public relations officer, whose public displays of Nazism were proving an embarrassment and damaged the League's chances of gaining a following.[2]

Nonetheless, the League, along with other more minor fascist groups in Britain at the time, worked closely with German prisoners-of-war held in camps in and around London.[7]

Anti-Semitism[]

The group was noted for its virulent anti-Semitism although immediately after the war, that policy was publicly criticised by Oswald Mosley.[5] As a result of the group's anti-Semitism, it came into regular conflict with the militant anti-fasicist 43 Group although individual members of the movement such as also managed to infiltrate the League.[8] Ultimately the 43 Group proved successful in forcing the League to abandon many of its street parades.[9] However, the League also won support because anti-Semitic sentiments became widespread around 1947 in response to the situation in the British Mandate for Palestine because of the battle there between the British Army and Zionist groups. Such a growth in antisemitism not only boosted the league but also gave renewed impetus for a refoundation of a wider fascist movement.[10]

Union Movement[]

On 15 November 1947 a meeting was held at the Memorial Hall, in London's Farringdon Road, where Mosley announced his intention to return to politics. Four main movements were represented at the gathering: 's , Burgess's , 's and the League itself.[11]

Hamm and the League reacted favourably to that development although some, such as the former BUF member , of the Rural Reconstruction Association, were less than enthusiastic about admitting BLESMAW since they that they represented the brawling, vulgar, anti-Semitic tendency of the BUF that should be kept out of any new movement.[12] Nevertheless, BLESMAW was one of the constituent groups of the Union Movement upon its foundation in 1948, which marked the end of the movement.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p. 176
  2. ^ a b Graham Macklin, Very Deeply Dyed in Black, I.B. Tauris, 2007, p. 39
  3. ^ Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, pp. 176-177
  4. ^ Dorril 2007, p. 542.
  5. ^ a b c Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p. 177
  6. ^ Dorril 2007, p. 547.
  7. ^ Macklin, Very Deeply Dyed in Black, p. 86
  8. ^ Dorril 2007, p. 558.
  9. ^ Dorril 2007, p. 569.
  10. ^ Macklin, Very Deeply Dyed in Black, pp. 45-46
  11. ^ Dorril 2007, p. 566.
  12. ^ Dorril 2007, pp. 567–568.
Bibliography
Dorril, Stephen (2007). Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-025821-9.
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