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John Angus Macnab | |
---|---|
Born | 1906 London, England |
Died | 1977 Madrid, Spain |
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | British |
Education | Rugby School |
Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Known for | Writer, translator and fascist politician |
Political party | British Union of Fascists National Socialist League |
Spouse | Catherine Collins |
John Angus Macnab (1906–1977) was a British fascist politician who embraced Roman Catholicism under the influence of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. He was a close associate of William Joyce and later became known as a Perennialist writer on Medieval Spain and a translator of Latin and Greek poetry.
Macnab was born in London to New Zealand–Scottish parents. The son of a well-known Harley Street eye doctor, MacNab was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford. [1] Macnab converted to Catholicism [1] and was a keen mountaineer. [2] Although a gifted translator, he chose on graduation to train as a schoolteacher.
During the 1930s, Macnab shared a flat in London with fascist politician William Joyce, and they became lifelong friends. [3] A witness at Joyce's second marriage, [4] Macnab joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and worked in the party's Propaganda Department, editing the party journal, Fascist Quarterly and contributing a weekly antisemitic column, 'Jolly Judah', to its newspaper, The Blackshirt. [5] A loyal ally of Joyce, he complained directly to Oswald Mosley about Joyce's dismissal from the BUF in 1937, but due to the severity of the conflict between Mosley and Joyce, the BUF leader threatened to attack Macnab physically for his complaints, and ultimately had him ejected by force by his Blackshirts. [5] [6]
Following the incident, Macnab joined Joyce and John Beckett in forming the overtly pro-Nazi National Socialist League. The group gained little support, and Macnab travelled with Joyce to Belgium just before the war where they met with Nazi agent Christian Bauer, a journalist with Der Angriff , [7] and travelled onwards with him to Berlin. [8] Although Joyce remained in Germany, Macnab returned to Britain immediately after the outbreak of war, stating that he would not be involved in aiding its enemies. [7]
In the early stages of the Second World War, Macnab served as an ambulance driver, but was soon detained under Defence Regulation 18B due to his previous Nazi sympathies. [9] He was the first person to identify Joyce as "Lord Haw Haw", whose identity had initially been a mystery, when his former university colleague, the Daily Mail journalist Edward Chichester, Marquess of Donegall, asked him to listen to some recordings, suspecting that Joyce had made them, rather than the other leading suspect, John Amery. [10]
Macnab remained loyal to Joyce after his capture and joined Joyce's brother Quentin in a failed attempt to appeal against his death sentence. [9]
In 1938, under the influence of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, Macnab had embraced scholastic philosophy and traditional Catholicism. Around the same time, he developed an interest in Spain, and in 1945, at the end of World War II, he settled in Toledo with his wife Catherine Collins, an Irish former BUF activist who he had married the same year. [11] The couple lived with their three children, all born in Spain, in the city's Plaza de Santo Tomé, and Macnab made a living by teaching and translating English, as well as writing. [11] He maintained correspondence with A. K. Chesterton for much of the remainder of his life, but took no further role in active politics. [12]
In the mid-1950s, he read Marco Pallis's book Peaks and Lamas. He was strongly affected by Pallis's traditionalist thought and wrote to him to express his gratitude. In response, Pallis suggested to Macnab that he should study the writings of René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon, which he did.
Macnab visited Schuon in Lausanne in 1957, and they remained in contact until his death in Madrid in 1977. While in Spain, Macnab received a number of high-profile visitors from Britain and the United States, including novelists Evelyn Waugh and James Michener, publisher Tom Burns, and Marco Pallis.
Macnab's studies of the history of Moorish Spain resulted in two books: Spain under the Crescent Moon, and Toledo, Sacred and Profane, as well as a number of articles published in the London journal Studies of Comparative Religion from 1965 to 1968. He also wrote Bulls of Iberia, which was described by the English critic Kenneth Tynan as "awesomely good". In an article in the British journal New Blackfriars, [13] William Stoddart paid tribute to Macnab as a leading Catholic intellectual who was the author of a fascinating study of the Spanish Middle Ages.
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member of parliament and later founded and led the British Union of Fascists (BUF).
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the party was proscribed by the British government and in 1940 it was disbanded.
Arthur Kenneth Chesterton was a British far-right journalist and political activist. From 1933 to 1938, he was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Disillusioned with Oswald Mosley, he left the BUF in 1938. Chesterton established the League of Empire Loyalists in 1954, which merged with a short-lived British National Party in 1967 to become the National Front. He founded and edited the magazine Candour in 1954 as the successor of Truth, of which he had been co-editor.
Harry Douglas Clark Pepler (1878–1951) was an English printer, writer and poet. He was an associate of both Eric Gill and G. K. Chesterton, working on publications in which they had an interest. He was also a founder with Gill and Desmond Chute in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at Ditchling, Sussex, called The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic.
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Alexander Raven Thomson, usually referred to as Raven, was a Scottish politician and philosopher. He joined the British Union of Fascists in 1933 and remained a follower of Oswald Mosley for the rest of his life. Thomson was considered to be the party's chief ideologue and has been described as the "Alfred Rosenberg of British fascism".
The British People's Party (BPP) was a British far-right political party founded in 1939 and led by ex-British Union of Fascists (BUF) member and Labour Party Member of Parliament John Beckett.
Robert Forgan was a British politician who was a close associate of Oswald Mosley.
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.
British fascism is the form of fascism which is promoted by some political parties and movements in the United Kingdom. It is based on British ultranationalism and imperialism and had aspects of Italian fascism and Nazism both before and after World War II.
Neil Lanfear Maclean Francis Hawkins was a British writer and politician who was a leading proponent of British fascism in the United Kingdom both before and after the Second World War. He played a leading role in the British Union of Fascists and controlled the organisational structure of the movement.
Robert Row (1915–1999) was an English fascist from Lancaster, a member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) who was detained by the British government under Defence Regulation 18B during the Second World War. After the war, he wrote and edited British fascist publications and remained a believer in Mosley until his death.
The Battle of South Street was a riot that took place on 9 October 1934 in Worthing, Sussex, England. The riot took place as members of the British Union of Fascists and various anti-fascist protesters clashed following a meeting of Fascists at the Pier Pavilion. The riot involved a series of clashes along and close to the length of South Street from the Pier Pavilion and the Royal Arcade at its southern end to the junctions with Warwick Street and Market Street further north.
The Battle of Carfax (1936) was a violent skirmish in the city of Oxford between the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and local anti-fascists, trade unionists, and supporters of the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain. The battle took place inside Oxford's Carfax Assembly Rooms, a once popular meeting hall owned by Oxford City Council which was used for public events and located on Cornmarket Street.