Henry Drummond Wolff (Basingstoke MP)

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Henry Drummond Wolff
Member of Parliament
for Basingstoke
In office
19 April 1934 – 25 October 1935
Preceded byViscount Lymington
Succeeded byPatrick Donner
Majority6,885
Personal details
Born
Henry Maxence Cavendish Drummond Wolff

(1899-07-16)16 July 1899
Died8 February 1982(1982-02-08) (aged 82)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
RelationsHenry Drummond Wolff (grandfather)
ProfessionIndustrialist

Henry Maxence Cavendish Drummond Wolff (16 July 1899 – 8 February 1982), commonly known as Henry Drummond Wolff, was a British

far right
.

Political career

From early in his political career, Drummond Wolff's outlook was defined by his twin hatreds for laissez-faire capitalism and socialism, opinions that would lead him to become sympathetic to fascism as an alternative.[1]

In 1934, Viscount Lymington resigned as MP for Basingstoke, after becoming disillusioned with party politics.[2] Nonetheless, he helped to ensure that his successor as Conservative candidate would be Drummond Wolff, a close political associate.[2] Drummond Wolff was duly elected in the resulting by-election, but he held the seat for only a year, resigning ostensibly due to ill health, although in fact because he shared Lymington's lack of faith in democracy.[2] Despite that, both men were involved in the selection of the next MP, Patrick Donner, who also had close links to the far right.[2]

Despite being himself of Jewish ancestry, he was the great grandson of

Vice-Admiral E. A. Taylor and Thomas Moore.[5] Correspondence between Drummond Wolff and an election agent also indicates that, before Donner's selection as Conservative candidate for the 1935 general election could be ratified, he had had to be interviewed by Oswald Mosley, with the Basingstoke Conservative Party as a whole closely linked to the BUF.[6]

Such was the notoriety of Drummond Wolff with regards to his support for

British Commonwealth and the British Empire, .[9]

Although close to the BUF, Drummond Wolff did maintain some independence and, as war loomed, he joined

Jews and leftists, as well as by war capitalists of the United States, and by the Soviet Union which, he argued, saw war as an opportunity for world revolution.[1] He also argued that a war against Germany was not winnable, because the country could not be attacked by land or sea and so an air war would ensue, something that he felt the Luftwaffe would inevitably win.[1] As war loomed, Drummond Wolff began to moderate his pro-Nazi stance and even published a paper in which he argued that, as a means of avoiding war, Britain could help foment a revolution within Germany, not as a means of removing Hitler, but rather of distracting him from international concerns and forcing him to focus internally.[11] The Duke of Westminster, a staunch opponent of war with Germany, was impressed by Drummond Wolff's plan and read it to influential anti-war activists, but nothing came of it.[11] The group became dormant soon after the outbreak of war, and Drummond Wolff withdrew from politics.[12]

Personal life

Drummond Wolff was the grandson of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, himself also a Conservative MP.[13] Drummond Wolff was married to the American socialite Margaret Fahnestock the daughter of investment banker Gibson Fahnestock and granddaughter of Harris C. Fahnestock whose sons were the founders of Fahnestock & Co.[14]

Bibliography

  • Dorril, Stephen, Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism, Penguin: 2007
  • Newton, Scott, Profits of Peace: The Political Economy of Anglo-German Appeasement: The Political Economy of Anglo-German Appeasement, Oxford University Press: 1996
  • Pugh, Martin, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!": Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars, Pimlico: 2006

References

  1. ^ a b c Newton, p. 152
  2. ^ a b c d e f Pugh, p. 148
  3. ^ a b c d Pugh, p. 283
  4. ^ Dorril, p. 278
  5. ^ Dorril, p. 299
  6. ^ Dorril, p. 364
  7. ^ Pugh, p. 282
  8. ^ Donald Cameron Watt, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939, Random House, 1989, p. 396
  9. ^ Newton, p. 151
  10. ^ Pugh, p. 290
  11. ^ a b Dorril, p. 470
  12. ^ Pugh, p. 312
  13. ^ Henry Drummond Wolff
  14. ^ University of Leeds:Special Collections Archive:Henry M. C. Drummond Wolff
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Member of Parliament for Basingstoke
1934 – 1935
 Succeeded by
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