Neil Francis Hawkins
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Neil Francis Hawkins (1903-1950) was a leading British fascist, both before and after the Second World War.
Hawkins joined the British Fascisti around the time of its inception and became a leading figure in that movement, being seen by many of the male members as a preferable leader to Rotha Lintorn-Orman. He split the organisation in 1932 after a quarrel with Lintorn-Orman and took the bulk of the membership with him into Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, where he rose through the ranks to become Director General. As the leading member of the movement after Mosley, it was Francis Hawkins who developed the notion of BUF members wearing a black shirt under an ordinary suit, an important step for the movement to retain its identity following the banning of uniforms in the Public Order Act 1936.
Francis Hawkins was arrested along with Mosley and others under the first wave of Defence Regulation 18B swoops in 1940. Held in internment for much of the war, he was released in 1944 and concentrated on his business interests.
Involved in the foundation of the Union Movement in an organisational capacity, Hawkins did not take a leading role due to his failing health. He died from bronchial asthma on Christmas Day 1950 aged 47.
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