Anthony (Tony) Hancock has been a member of various far right groups in the United Kingdom and, as a publisher, has produced literature for almost all of Britain's right-wing extremists.
Based in Brighton, where he owned a hotel called the Heidelberg, Anthony Hancock is the son of Alan Hancock, a veteran of the British Union of Fascists who first set up the publishing firm. With his father as a leading member, Anthony Hancock cut his teeth as a member of the Racial Preservation Society and from this group he became a member of the National Front.[1]
As a member of the NF, Hancock became a close associate of Steve Brady of the League of St George and followed him into the National Party in 1976. It was at this time that Hancock stepped up his printing firm and was soon producing not only for the NP and the League, but also for the British Movement and later the NF and the British National Party amongst others.[1] He later became a supporter of the British Democratic Party,[2] although by and large he put his own feelings aside and continued to publish for any far right group that asked him to.
A devotee of Holocaust Denial, Hancock set up the Historical Review Press (based in Uckfield) which, funded by Robin Beauclair (formerly of the RPS), became the leading source of Holocaust denying material in Britain. The Press published versions of a number of seminal works including Arthur Butz' The Hoax of the Twentieth Century as well as an occasional newspaper The Holocaust News. Most famously Hancock published Did Six Million Really Die? and made a lot of money from doing so, to the point where he was sued for royalties in the High Court in 1982.[3] David Irving has also acknowledged that Hancock has done some of his printing, although it has been alleged that the relationship is much deeper and that the two have worked together on Holocaust denial seminars.[4] Hancock was also a leading member of the Clarendon Club, a debating society active from 1979 to 1981 in which Irivng and members of the League of St. George were joined by more mainstream figures such as Harvey Proctor.[5]
Hancock also built up an extensive range of international contacts and was closely associated with Roberto Fiore for a time during the 1980s.[6] Distributing large quantities of Holocaust denial material in Germany, he was investigated by the German police in the late 1990s, although no case was brought as he was not breaking UK law and so could not face extradition.