Material collected by Stuart Rawnsley while researching for his Ph.D. thesis, "Fascism and Fascists in Britain in the 1930s". The British Union of Fascists was an amalgamation in 1932 of Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party and several small fascist groups. The Union adopted the Fascist salute, black shirt and extreme anti-Semitic views. They were strongly opposed by Communists and Jewish groups, and increasingly by people from across the political spectrum. Hecklers at meetings were harshly dealt with, and rallies and marches were set to provoke confrontation, including conflicts at Olympia in 1934 and the "Battle of Cable Street" in London in 1936. The Public Order Act (1936), prohibiting political uniforms and giving the police power to ban political marches, took the movement out of the public eye. The party was strongest in the textile areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire, depressed rural areas, and the East End of London, but failed to develop ultimately as a serious political force on the national scale. Following the fall of France and the invasion crisis of May 1940 Defence Regulations 18B and 18B (1A) were enacted, resulting in the internment of many British Union members on the grounds that they might potentially act as a Fifth Column for the enemy.
From the guide to the The Rawnsley British Union of Fascists Collection, [1965?]-[1981?], (GB 532 Bradford University Library)
