League of Empire Loyalists
Encyclopedia
The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British
pressure group (also called a 'ginger group
' in Britain and the British Commonwealth), established in 1954, which campaigned against the dissolution of the British Empire
. The League was a small group of current or former members of the Conservative Party
led by Arthur K. Chesterton, a former leading figure in the British Union of Fascists
, who had served under Oswald Mosley
. The League found support from a number of Conservative Party members, although they were disliked very much by the leadership.
and the United States
and concluded that American style capitalism
and Bolshevism were actually in alliance as part of Jewish-led conspiracy against the British Empire
, a mindset that informed the LEL from the beginning. The wide reaching critiques that this conspiracy theory utilised meant that the LEL won membership from various sectors of right-wing opinion including former BUF activists like Chesterton himself and Barry Domvile
, traditionalist patriots like General Sir Richard Hilton and young radicals like John Tyndall
, John Bean
, Colin Jordan
and Martin Webster
. Indeed in its early years the LEL succeeded in attracting some leading members of the establishment to its ranks, including Field-Marshal Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside
, Lieutenant-General Sir Balfour Oliphant Hutchison and former British People's Party election candidate Air Commodore G.S. Oddie.
Although the LEL actively supported an independent candidate who was a member at the Lewisham North by-election, 1957
it was not a political party.
, George Irvine Finlay (who became Director of Organisation for the Scottish Conservatives) was involved in forcibly removing members of the League of Empire Loyalists. The widespread media coverage resulted in his being sued for assault; not only was he acquitted but costs were awarded against the prosecution. That same year the League secured further publicity when members launched an "invasion" of the Lambeth Conference
of the Anglican Communion
.
Another incident saw LEL member Austen Brooks manage to gain access to a lunch for U Thant
by impersonating Makarios III
, both men being heavily bearded, before revealing his charade and shouting LEL slogans. Anthony Eden
was also a target and when he shook hands with Nikita Khrushchev
and Nikolai Bulganin
as they arrived at Victoria Station
in 1956 LEL members were on hand to yell at Eden that he had just shaken hands with murderers. In November 1961 Wing-Commander Leonard Young gained further notoriety for the LEL when he threw a bag of sheep guts at President of Kenya Jomo Kenyata. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
was also a target with speakers at its inaugural rally in Central Hall, Westminster, on 17 February 1958 being heckled, in particular Michael Foot
. After these antics the Tory leadership made it clear to their members that the LEL was to be discouraged, leading to a severe downturn in membership.
and to campaign for its continuing existence. It was to be its calls for the restoration of the empire and reassertion of the notion of English people
as the world's natural leaders that ultimately saw the group become estranged from the Conservatives, as the League was increasingly divorced from the one nation conservatism
that came to dominate the party. This was particularly true following Harold Macmillan
's Wind of Change
speech in 1960 when the Tories formally broke from any notion of being the party of empire.
As time progressed, the group became primarily concerned with opposing non-white immigration into Britain
and were instrumental in the founding (with other right-wing and neo-Nazi
groups) of the National Front in February 1967. Chesterton's personal anti-Semitism
and devotion to conspiracy theories about the Jews and international capitalism also became more prominent in LEL ideology towards the end of the group's life. The League was also strongly anti-communist and had close links with emigre groups such as the Ukrainian National Committee. It also had a vague connection to the economic idea of distributism
, inspired to an extent by A.K. Chesterton's familial relationship to G.K. Chesterton.
Although sometimes labeled fascist according to historian Roger Eatwell: "Most of its 2000-3000 active members were Colonel Blimp
ish rather than fascist: in fact many of its members saw it as a Conservative ginger group... an attempt to keep the Conservatives true to the Imperial way." Indeed it has also been argued that although parts of its ideology overlapped with fascism the LEL was in fact much too reactionary to be considered truly fascist, given the revolutionary nature of that ideology.
whilst another group of departees had been the supporters of Colin Jordan. Jordan had left initially in 1957 after his call to bar Jews and non-whites from the LEL had been rejected whilst John Bean had left in acrimonious circumstances the following year. Both men advocated the formation of mass parties, an idea that Chesterton rejected, and over time they won support to their respective groups, the White Defence League
and the National Labour Party
by advocating these and other more radical ideas.
By the mid 1960s the LEL was a shadow of its former self as, according to leading member Rodney Legg, it had come to be seen as archaiac and anachronistic whilst it was struggling even more with a lack of funds. Indeed by 1964 Chesterton was already being heard to say in private that the future of the LEL might be better served by joining up with the younger, more radical members who had departed earlier in the decade. In an attempt to reinvigorate the flagging group Chesterton was persuaded to put up three "Independent Loyalist" candidates in the 1964 General Election
but between them they managed to secure only 1064 votes.
-based millionaire Robert K. Jeffrey, who had seemingly left two contradictory wills but Chesterton's fervour for politics had been rekindled by his discovery of the relative ease of funding a political party as well as by the emergence of Edward Martell
, a right-wing libertarian
who had garnered a reputation as an excellent fund-raiser and whose methods, if not politics, had impressed Chesterton greatly. By the spring of 1966 Chesterton had begun sounding out the likes of Bean, Tyndall and even Jordan about the possibility of building a united front on the far right.
Chesterton's mood was dampened somewhat by the 1966 general election
in which the Labour Party
won a convincing victory and anti-immigration candidates lost support, as well as by Rhodesia
's exit from the Commonwealth following their Unilateral declaration of independence. However it also convinced him that space had opened to the right of the Conservative Party and that the chances were better for a united far right group. The LEL itself however was under threat from the growth of both the Racial Preservation Society
and the Monday Club, making the need for a new party that much more urgent. Around this time he flirted with Dr. David Brown of the Racial Preservation Society
and his plans to establish a National Democratic Party
but he backed away when Brown insisted that the LEL would effectively be turned over to RPS control in this arrangement.
Discussions with the BNP began in earnest in September 1966 and by the time of the LEL conference the following month plans were already at such an advanced stage that the major topic was whether the new party would be called the British Front or the National Independence Party. The conference also saw the establishment of a working party to thrash out details of the new group, consisting of Austen Brooks, Rosine de Bounevialle, Avril Walters and Nettie Bonner from the LEL and Philip Maxwell, Bernard Simmons and Gerald Kemp from the BNP. On 7 February 1967 the LEL was officially wound up and replaced by the newly merged group, by now officially known as the National Front
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pressure group (also called a 'ginger group
Ginger group
A ginger group is a formal or informal group within, for example, a political party seeking to inspire the rest with its own enthusiasm and activity....
' in Britain and the British Commonwealth), established in 1954, which campaigned against the dissolution of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. The League was a small group of current or former members of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
led by Arthur K. Chesterton, a former leading figure in the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
, who had served under Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
. The League found support from a number of Conservative Party members, although they were disliked very much by the leadership.
Formation
Chesterton established the group in 1954 on the far right of the Conservative Party, effectively as a reaction to the more liberal forms of Toryism in evident at the time, as typified by the policies of R.A. Butler. Chesterton feared the growth of both the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and concluded that American style capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and Bolshevism were actually in alliance as part of Jewish-led conspiracy against the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, a mindset that informed the LEL from the beginning. The wide reaching critiques that this conspiracy theory utilised meant that the LEL won membership from various sectors of right-wing opinion including former BUF activists like Chesterton himself and Barry Domvile
Barry Domvile
Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile KBE CB CMG was a distinguished Royal Navy officer who turned into a leading British Pro-German anti-Semite in the years before the Second World War....
, traditionalist patriots like General Sir Richard Hilton and young radicals like John Tyndall
John Tyndall (politician)
John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British politician who was prominently associated with several fascist/neo-Nazi sects. However, he is best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party in 1982.The most prominent figure in British nationalism...
, John Bean
John Bean
John Edward Bean is a long-standing participant in the British far right, who has been active within a number of movements during the course of his life and is the voice behind the BNP election broadcasts.-Early life:...
, Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
and Martin Webster
Martin Webster
Martin Guy Alan Webster is a former leading figure on the far-right in British politics.-Early political activism:An early member of the Young Conservatives, from which he claimed to have been expelled, Webster was associated loosely with the League of Empire Loyalists until he joined the National...
. Indeed in its early years the LEL succeeded in attracting some leading members of the establishment to its ranks, including Field-Marshal Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside
Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside
Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside GCB, CMG, CBE, DSO, was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War....
, Lieutenant-General Sir Balfour Oliphant Hutchison and former British People's Party election candidate Air Commodore G.S. Oddie.
Although the LEL actively supported an independent candidate who was a member at the Lewisham North by-election, 1957
Lewisham North by-election, 1957
The Lewisham North by-election of 14 February 1957 was held following the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet the previous year...
it was not a political party.
Stunts
They were well-known for various stunts at Conservative Party meetings and conferences (acting as a constant irritant to the party). These stunts included hiding underneath the speaker platform overnight to emerge during the conference in order to put across their points. At the 1958 party Conference in BlackpoolBlackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, George Irvine Finlay (who became Director of Organisation for the Scottish Conservatives) was involved in forcibly removing members of the League of Empire Loyalists. The widespread media coverage resulted in his being sued for assault; not only was he acquitted but costs were awarded against the prosecution. That same year the League secured further publicity when members launched an "invasion" of the Lambeth Conference
Lambeth Conferences
The Lambeth Conferences are decennial assemblies of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place in 1867....
of the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
.
Another incident saw LEL member Austen Brooks manage to gain access to a lunch for U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
by impersonating Makarios III
Makarios III
Makarios III , born Andreas Christodolou Mouskos , was the archbishop and primate of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church and the first President of the Republic of Cyprus ....
, both men being heavily bearded, before revealing his charade and shouting LEL slogans. Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
was also a target and when he shook hands with Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
and Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
as they arrived at Victoria Station
Victoria station
Victoria station may refer to:Railway stations:* London Victoria station, a National Rail and London Underground station* Manchester Victoria station* Norwich Victoria railway station * Nottingham Victoria railway station...
in 1956 LEL members were on hand to yell at Eden that he had just shaken hands with murderers. In November 1961 Wing-Commander Leonard Young gained further notoriety for the LEL when he threw a bag of sheep guts at President of Kenya Jomo Kenyata. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
was also a target with speakers at its inaugural rally in Central Hall, Westminster, on 17 February 1958 being heckled, in particular Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
. After these antics the Tory leadership made it clear to their members that the LEL was to be discouraged, leading to a severe downturn in membership.
Policies
As its name suggests the initial aim of the LEL was to support the British EmpireBritish Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and to campaign for its continuing existence. It was to be its calls for the restoration of the empire and reassertion of the notion of English people
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
as the world's natural leaders that ultimately saw the group become estranged from the Conservatives, as the League was increasingly divorced from the one nation conservatism
One Nation Conservatism
One nation, one nation conservatism, and Tory democracy are terms used in political debate in the United Kingdom to refer to a certain wing of the Conservative Party...
that came to dominate the party. This was particularly true following Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's Wind of Change
Wind of Change
"Wind of Change" is a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of the German heavy metal band Scorpions. It appeared on their 1990 album Crazy World, but did not become a worldwide hit single until 1991, when it topped the charts in Germany and across Europe, and hit #4 in the United...
speech in 1960 when the Tories formally broke from any notion of being the party of empire.
As time progressed, the group became primarily concerned with opposing non-white immigration into Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and were instrumental in the founding (with other right-wing and neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
groups) of the National Front in February 1967. Chesterton's personal anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and devotion to conspiracy theories about the Jews and international capitalism also became more prominent in LEL ideology towards the end of the group's life. The League was also strongly anti-communist and had close links with emigre groups such as the Ukrainian National Committee. It also had a vague connection to the economic idea of distributism
Distributism
Distributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
, inspired to an extent by A.K. Chesterton's familial relationship to G.K. Chesterton.
Although sometimes labeled fascist according to historian Roger Eatwell: "Most of its 2000-3000 active members were Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character.The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically British...
ish rather than fascist: in fact many of its members saw it as a Conservative ginger group... an attempt to keep the Conservatives true to the Imperial way." Indeed it has also been argued that although parts of its ideology overlapped with fascism the LEL was in fact much too reactionary to be considered truly fascist, given the revolutionary nature of that ideology.
Decline and splits
By 1961 the LEL found itself in financial trouble with Chesterton himself funding the group. The group had also lost considerable membership, falling from a 1958 high of 3000 to only 300 members. Some had left with Hilton to join his Patriotic PartyPatriotic Party (UK)
The Patriotic Party was a far right political party in the United Kingdom.The group began life as the True Tories in 1962 when Major General Sir Richard Hilton, formerly a leading member of the League of Empire Loyalists, set up his own nationalistic group with a membership largely made up of...
whilst another group of departees had been the supporters of Colin Jordan. Jordan had left initially in 1957 after his call to bar Jews and non-whites from the LEL had been rejected whilst John Bean had left in acrimonious circumstances the following year. Both men advocated the formation of mass parties, an idea that Chesterton rejected, and over time they won support to their respective groups, the White Defence League
White Defence League
The White Defence League was a British far-right political group. Using the provocative marching techniques popularised by Oswald Mosley, its members included a young John Tyndall.-Formation:...
and the National Labour Party
National Labour Party (UK, 1957)
The National Labour Party was a far right political party founded in 1957 by John Bean. The party campaigned on a platform of white nationalism, opposition to non-white immigration and anti-Semitism.-Formation:...
by advocating these and other more radical ideas.
By the mid 1960s the LEL was a shadow of its former self as, according to leading member Rodney Legg, it had come to be seen as archaiac and anachronistic whilst it was struggling even more with a lack of funds. Indeed by 1964 Chesterton was already being heard to say in private that the future of the LEL might be better served by joining up with the younger, more radical members who had departed earlier in the decade. In an attempt to reinvigorate the flagging group Chesterton was persuaded to put up three "Independent Loyalist" candidates in the 1964 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
but between them they managed to secure only 1064 votes.
Creation of the National Front
Despite the poor performances of the three candidates donations had poured in from all over the country to help them fight the campaign. This made a deep impression on Chesterton, who had largely been obliged to fund the LEL out of his own pocket. Chesterton had been preoccupied with a legal case over the estate of his financial benefactor, the ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
-based millionaire Robert K. Jeffrey, who had seemingly left two contradictory wills but Chesterton's fervour for politics had been rekindled by his discovery of the relative ease of funding a political party as well as by the emergence of Edward Martell
Edward Martell (politician)
Edward Drewett Martell was a British politician and libertarian activist.-Family and education:Martell was the eldest son of E E Martell and Ethel Horwood. He was educated at St. George's School, Harpenden. In 1932 he married Ethel Maud Beverley. They had one son.-Journalism:Martell worked in the...
, a right-wing libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
who had garnered a reputation as an excellent fund-raiser and whose methods, if not politics, had impressed Chesterton greatly. By the spring of 1966 Chesterton had begun sounding out the likes of Bean, Tyndall and even Jordan about the possibility of building a united front on the far right.
Chesterton's mood was dampened somewhat by the 1966 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...
in which the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
won a convincing victory and anti-immigration candidates lost support, as well as by Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
's exit from the Commonwealth following their Unilateral declaration of independence. However it also convinced him that space had opened to the right of the Conservative Party and that the chances were better for a united far right group. The LEL itself however was under threat from the growth of both the Racial Preservation Society
Racial Preservation Society
The Racial Preservation Society was a right-wing pressure group opposed to immigration and in favour of white nationalism, national preservation and protection in the United Kingdom in the 1960s.-Background:...
and the Monday Club, making the need for a new party that much more urgent. Around this time he flirted with Dr. David Brown of the Racial Preservation Society
Racial Preservation Society
The Racial Preservation Society was a right-wing pressure group opposed to immigration and in favour of white nationalism, national preservation and protection in the United Kingdom in the 1960s.-Background:...
and his plans to establish a National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party (UK, 1966)
The National Democratic Party was a right wing political party that operated in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s. The NDP sought to poisition itself as an early rival to the National Front although ultimately it failed to challenege the position of this group.-Background:The NDP had...
but he backed away when Brown insisted that the LEL would effectively be turned over to RPS control in this arrangement.
Discussions with the BNP began in earnest in September 1966 and by the time of the LEL conference the following month plans were already at such an advanced stage that the major topic was whether the new party would be called the British Front or the National Independence Party. The conference also saw the establishment of a working party to thrash out details of the new group, consisting of Austen Brooks, Rosine de Bounevialle, Avril Walters and Nettie Bonner from the LEL and Philip Maxwell, Bernard Simmons and Gerald Kemp from the BNP. On 7 February 1967 the LEL was officially wound up and replaced by the newly merged group, by now officially known as the National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
.