The Britons

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This article is about the anti-Semitic publishing society and political pressure group. For the inhabitants of Britain see Briton.

The Britons, founded in July 1919, by Henry Hamilton Beamish, was the predecessor of the Britons Publishing Society. The latter was founded in August 1922 by The Britons.

These were publishing entities engaged primarily in disseminating anti-Semitic and anti-immigration literature and rhetoric in the United Kingdom, and bore hallmarks of the British fascist movement. Its predecessor was Judaic Publishing Company. According to scholar Sharman Kadish:

But the most extreme group disseminating antisemitic propaganda in the early 1920s — indeed the very first organization set up in Britain for this express purpose — The Britons.

The group was founded in London in 1918 by Henry Hamilton Beamish, who had developed an anti-Semitic viewpoint when he spent time in South Africa and felt that all the industries there were controlled by Jews. Beamish became involved with the Silver Badge Party, although by 1919 he had left Britain altogether after losing a libel case brought by Sir Alfred Mond.

Despite the disappearance of Beamish, the Britons continued under John Henry Clarke, a well-known homeopath who served as Chairman and Vice-President (with the Southern Rhodesia-based Beamish continuing as President) from the formation of the group until his death in 1931. Clarke helped the party to work with the right wing of the Conservative Party, and the Britons attracted such members as inventor Arthur Kitson and Brigadier-General R.B.D. Blakeney.

The group claimed that it's only aim was to get rid of all the Jews in Britain by forcing them to emigrate to Palestine. Only those who could prove English blood up to grandparent level were allowed membership (despite the name 'Britons'). Eschewing the street politics of predecessors such as the British Brothers League, group activities centred mainly on publishing, with journals such as Jewry Uber Alles, The British Guardian and The Investigator (which began publishing in 1937 and used a swastika as its emblem with the motto 'For Crown and Country, Blood and Soil) appearing regularly. They also published a number of books on the topic, including an imprint, allegedly a translation by Victor E. Marsden into the English language, of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It is to be noted that Victor E. Marsden had died on October 28, 1920. The Britons had ceased publication of their previous version of this imprint, and Norman Cohn states that the Marsden version first came out in print in 1921. However, the earliest imprint bearing the name of Marsden and held by the British Library bears the date of 1922, and the Library's online catalog shows that it was imprinted by the Britons Publishing Society. There is no scholarly work on Victor E. Marsden, a former correspondent for The Morning Post, and there has not yet been an accounting of how precisely his name came to be associated with the publication of the The Protocols. And it is at this time that this notorious text was exposed as a plagiarism, conclusively, in August of 1921, by Philip Graves. The previous translation was made allegedly by George Shanks for Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd. (printers), the King's printers.

Known from 1922 onwards as the Britons Publishing Company, this publishing entity produced material for such groups as the British Union of Fascists. It was largely inactive during World War II, although the group continued to exist until the late 1940s.

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The far right in the United Kingdom
Pre-1945 political parties and groups:

Anglo-German Fellowship | British Brothers League | British Fascists | British Peoples Party | The Britons | Imperial Fascist League | The Link | National Fascisti | National Socialist League

Post-1945 defunct political parties and groups:

British Democratic Party | British Empire Party | British Movement | British National Party | Column 88 | Constitutional Movement | Flag Group | Greater Britain Movement | League of Empire Loyalists | National Democratic Party | National Fellowship | National Independence Party | National Labour Party | National Party | National Socialist Action Party | National Socialist Movement | Official National Front | One Nation | Patriotic Party | Racial Preservation Society | Union Movement | White Defence League | White Nationalist Party

Active political parties and groups:

British National Party | British Peoples Party | Combat 18 | England First Party | Freedom Party | International Third Position | League of Saint George | National Democrats | National Front | National Socialist Movement | Nationalist Alliance | New Britain Party | New Nationalist Party | Northern League | November 9th Society | Racial Volunteer Force

Pre-1945 people:

John Amery | A. F. X. Baron | Henry Hamilton Beamish | John Beckett | Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford | Barry Domvile | William Evans-Gordon | Robert Forgan | Neil Francis Hawkins | J. F. C. Fuller | William Joyce | Arnold Leese | Rotha Lintorn-Orman | Diana Mitford | Unity Mitford | Lady Cynthia Mosley | Oswald Mosley | Alexander Raven Thomson | Henry Williamson

Post-1945 people

Ian Anderson | John Bean | Jane Birdwood | Andrew Brons | A. K. Chesterton | David Copeland | Mark Cotterill | Sharon Ebanks | Richard Edmonds | Andrew Fountaine | Nick Griffin | Jeffrey Hamm | Anthony Hancock | Patrick Harrington | Derek Holland | Colin Jordan | John Kingsley Read | Michael McLaughlin | Eddy Morrison | David Myatt | John O'Brien | Denis Pirie | Kevin Quinn | Anthony Reed Herbert | Robert Relf | Charlie Sargent | Simon Sheppard | Troy Southgate | Keith Thompson | John Tyndall | Richard Verrall | Martin Webster | Martin Wingfield | John Graeme Wood

Related articles:

Battle of Cable Street | British National Front election results | British National Party election results | British nationalism | Europe a Nation | List of British fascist parties | National Party of Europe | Political Soldier | World Union of National Socialists