Henry Hamilton Beamish
Henry Hamilton Beamish | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 June 1873 Anti-Semitic writer and activist |
| Political party | The Britons |
Henry Hamilton Beamish (2 June 1873 – 27 March 1948) was a leading
Biography
Early life and education
Henry Hamilton Beamish was born on 2 June 1873, the fifth son of Blanche Georgina Hughes (1840–1904) and
Beamish attended Romanoff House Boys' School in
Canada, Ceylon and South Africa
In 1891 Beamish became a fur trader in Quebec, and he is reported as a participant in an expedition to the North Pole in 1892.[2][3] He moved to Ceylon in 1895 to work on tea plantations. Between 1898 and 1899, Beamish served as an assistant manager on the Hope Estate in Upper Hewaheta, then as a second lieutenant with the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), leaving Ceylon for South Africa in April 1900. He returned to Ceylon two years later in July 1902.[2]
Beamish then settled in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where he ran a company named Empire Tea Rooms along with a friend. In 1904 he started one of the country's first agricultural newspapers, the Farmer's Advocate, which he ran for 15 years.[2] In 1907 Beamish represented the Orange River Colony settlers at a London conference with the British government, and he met in 1908 with The 1st Earl of Crewe – then the Secretary of State for the Colonies – to promote the interests of South African settlers. Beamish founded in 1914 the British Citizen Movement (BCM), an anti-German organisation which campaigned for the purchase of British products to support the war effort; he then became involved with the Consumers' Alliance, which advocated for the exclusion of Germans from business in South Africa.[2]
During the
Antisemitic activism in Britain
Upon returning to
He became involved with the Vigilante League led by
After that event, Beamish rarely returned to Britain and travelled the world to preach
Self-exile
Beamish settled in Rhodesia in 1920,[9] then he travelled to Germany in 1923 where he addressed one of Hitler's meetings at the Circus Krone on January 18, with a speech delivered in English and translated by Dietrich Eckart.[8][3] He has claimed, rather dubiously, to have taught Adolf Hitler.[10] Beamish served as vice-president of the Imperial Fascist League.[11] In 1932 he addressed a meeting of the New Party alongside Arnold Leese on the subject of "The Blindness of British Politics under the Jew Money-Power". Beamish had otherwise little involvement with the initiatives of Oswald Mosley.[9] Described by a South African judge in 1934 as an "anti-Jewish fanatic",[12] he travelled to the US in 1935, acting as a "transatlantic go-between for pro-Nazi Jew-hatred".[13] In 1936 Beamish returned to England and became involved with the Nordic League, an antisemitic organisation founded with German assistance one year earlier.[9]
In September 1936 Beamish visited Japan, then spoke at a meeting of the Canadian Nationalist Party in Winnipeg in October,[14] before embarking in December on a major lecture tour of Nazi Germany as a guest of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. He met fellow fanatical anti-Semite Julius Streicher in Nuremberg in January 1937.[15] In September of the same year, Beamish attended an international antisemitic congress organised by Ulrich Fleischhauer.[16] Beamish also spoke at meetings in North America with Canadian fascist leader Adrien Arcand, including some hosted by the German American Bund.[17]
Later life and death
Beamish returned to
Views
Beamish was one of the earliest proponents of the
References
- ^ a b Kadish 2013, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Toczek 2015, p. 2–20.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Macklin 2020.
- ^ a b c d Lebzelter 1978, p. 50.
- ^ The Times, 22 June 1918
- ^ Lebzelter 1978, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Toczek 2015, p. 46.
- ^ a b c Lebzelter 1978, p. 51.
- ^ a b c Toczek 2015.
- ^ Griffiths 1983, p. 98.
- ^ Thurlow 1987, pp. 70, 80.
- ^ Toczek 2015, p. 38.
- ^ Toczek 2015, p. 39.
- ^ Toczek 2015, p. 43.
- ^ a b Toczek 2015, p. 44.
- ^ Lebzelter 1978, p. 52.
- ^ Toczek 2015, p. 52.
- ^ Lebzelter 1978, pp. 52–53.
- ISBN 0-87548-434-4
Bibliography
- Benewick, Robert (1969). Political Violence & Public Order: A Study of British Fascism. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0713900859.
- ISBN 978-0-19-285116-1.
- Kadish, Sharman (2013). Bolsheviks and British Jews: The Anglo-Jewish Community, Britain and the Russian Revolution. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-72793-3.
- ISBN 978-1-349-04000-1.
- Macklin, Graham (2020). Failed Führers: A History of Britain's Extreme Right. Routledge.
- ISBN 978-0-631-13618-7.
- Toczek, Nick (2015). Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far Right. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-52587-5.