When Dumfries turned out for fascist leader of the Black Shirts
As his Blackshirt supporters violently ejected Communist protesters, Sir Oswald Mosley addressed a packed crowd of more than 3,000 locals in the Drill Hall in Dumfries.
It was April, 1934, and the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) was holding court in south-west Scotland. The meeting had been arranged by James Little, town clerk of nearby Dalbeattie, a community that had been described as “the cradle of Scottish fascism” thanks to having more than 400 members, easily outnumbering the combined membership of the BUF in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Oswald, a former Conservative and Labour MP who was once touted as the next prime minister, spoke rousingly for two and a half hours, focusing on agriculture and a promise to put thousands back to work on the land. It is thought one of the reasons why Oswald and the BUF found success in the area was the fact that the local economy was heavily reliant on farming and Oswald’s words about an agricultural renaissance struck a chord. Little, as a town clerk supporting the movement, helped foster respectability for the party in the area. Local MPS Dr Joseph Hunter and Cecil Dudgeon, both Liberals, listened on from the front row as Oswald detailed his plans for agriculture, which he said would also maintain the stability of the state.
The local newspaper reported on the meeting, stating: “Sir Oswald held the complete attention of the large audience throughout and his mastery of speech and invective was very impressive”. He was described as “a brilliant orator”. The following year, William Joyce – better known as Lord Haw-haw – addressed a meeting of the BUF in nearby Kirkcudbright.
Oswald was inspired to set up the party after meeting Mussolini during a trip to Italy, and modelled the Blackshirts on the Italian leader’s fascist regime. But as Oswald’s party became more radical, the full invective of his stance was revealed and, when the country went to war with Germany, the BUF was prohibited.
He was detained in May 1940, just two weeks after Winston Churchill became prime minister, and was interned, spending the next three years living with his family in the grounds of Holloway Prison. He was released in late 1943 and spent the rest of the war under house arrest.
He moved to France but attempted a comeback in British politics in 1959, leading his campaign on an anti-immigration policy but took just 8.1% of the vote. He returned to France and in 1977 was nominated as a candidate to become rector of Glasgow University but he lost out to John Bell.
Oswald died in Orsay, France, on December 3, 1980.