Andrew Fountaine
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Andrew Fountaine (1918-1997) was a veteran of the far right scene in British politics.
Born into a land-owning Norfolk family, Fountaine was educated at the Army College in Aldershot. After fighting for Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, he became a naval Lieutenant-Commander during the Second World War, serving in the Pacific before being invalided out. Fountaine then took a chemistry degree at Cambridge.
Fountaine launched his political career proper in 1949 when he was chosen by the Conservative Party as their candidate for Chorley. A speech to the Tory Party conference that same year was found to be too heavy with anti-Semitism however and a result the party disavowed his nomination.[1] Nonetheless, no official Conservative candidate was nominated to take his place and as a result Fountaine finished only 361 votes behind the winning candidate.
Having left the Conservative Party Fountaine launched his own group, known as the National Front Movement. However this came to nothing and so he became a member of the League of Empire Loyalists. He would go on to follow John Bean out of this group and was a founder member of the National Labour Party. Officially the leader of the NLP Fountaine fulfilled this role because he presented a more respectable image than Bean, being a landowner in Norfolk. Fountaine remained a strong supporter of Bean and supported him in his later struggles with Colin Jordan in the British National Party (in which he acted as party president). It was during this time that Fountaine's land was used for 'Spearhead' drilling exercises under the supervision of Jordan and John Tyndall.[2]
Fountaine would go on to be a leading member of the British National Front (NF), standing as their first parliamentary election candidate in Acton in a by-election in 1968. He eventually served as deputy leader to John Tyndall despite being expelled by Arthur Chesterton in 1968 (an action he had overturned in the High Court). In 1976, he contested the Coventry, N W by-election. In the 1979 general election, Fountaine stood as National Front candidate in the Norwich South constituency, polling a mere 264 votes (0.7%).
Fountaine split with Tyndall in 1979 and challenged him for the leadership but was defeated and split from the NF to form his own NF Constitutional Movement, later called the Nationalist Party. The new party claimed 2000 members by January 1980 and was publishing its own paper Excalibur. The new movement was to prove short-lived as Fountaine became disillusioned with the in-fighting that was coming to characterise the British right. He retired from politics in 1981 to concentrate on growing trees on his Norfolk estate and remained there until his death in 1997.
Controversial figure and British National Party supporter Tony Martin is the nephew of Fountaine.
[edit] Elections constested
| Date of election | Constituency | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Chorley | Conservative | 22872 | 46.9 |
| March 28, 1968 | Acton | NF | 1400 | 5.6 |
| March 4, 1976 | Coventry NW | NF | 986 | 3.1 |
| 1979 | Norwich South | NF | 264 | 0.7 |
Note: Although Fountaine was the candidate of the local Conservative Party in 1950 his candidacy had been disavowed by the party at national level.
