Henry Hamilton Beamish | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 June 1873 |
| Died | 27 March 1948(1948-03-27) (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Anti-Semitic writer and activist |
| Political party | The Britons |
Henry Hamilton Beamish (2 June 1873 – 27 March 1948) was a leadingBritishantisemitic journalist and the founder ofThe Britons in 1919, the first organisation set up in Britain for the express purpose of diffusing antisemitic propaganda.[1] After a conviction for libel the same year, Beamish fled Britain and began a career of touring speaker, travelling to Germany, Canada, the United States or Japan in order to promote antisemitic and fascist causes. In 1923, he spoke at one ofAdolf Hitler's meetings in Munich, and metJulius Streicher in Nuremberg in 1937. Beamish settled inSouthern Rhodesia in 1938, where he served as an independent member of theSouthern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly between 1938 and 1940. During theSecond World War, he was interned for three years due to his pro-Nazi sentiments. Upon his release, Beamish returned to England and died in March 1948, aged 74.
Henry Hamilton Beamish was born on 2 June 1873, the fifth son of Blanche Georgina Hughes (1840–1904) andRear-Admiral Henry Hamilton Beamish (1829–1911), a formerA.D.C. toQueen Victoria. His birth was registered at the civil parish ofSt George, Hanover Square in London. Beamish's father came from a prosperous family of Anglo-Irish landowners, although their wealth had already melted away by the time of his parents' birth. His mother was the granddaughter ofGeneralSir Loftus William Otway; the Otway family possessedCastle Otway inCounty Tipperary, Ireland.[2] Beamish's brother,Rear-AdmiralTufton Beamish (1874–1951), served as a Conservative MP for Lewes in 1924–1931 and 1936–1945.[3][2]
Beamish attended Romanoff House Boys' School inTunbridge Wells, Kent,[2] then left home at 16.[3] In the UK 1891 Census, he appears as a 17-year-old agricultural student at theColonial College inHollesley, inSuffolk.[2]
In 1891 Beamish became a fur trader inQuebec, and he is reported as a participant in an expedition to the North Pole in 1892.[2][3] He moved toCeylon in 1895 to work on tea plantations. Between 1898 and 1899, Beamish served as an assistant manager on the Hope Estate inUpper Hewaheta, then as a second lieutenant with the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps during theSecond 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 inBloemfontein,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, theFarmer's Advocate, which he ran for 15 years.[2] In 1907 Beamish represented theOrange River Colony settlers at a London conference with the British government, and he met in 1908 withThe 1st Earl of Crewe – then theSecretary 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 theFirst World War, Beamish served in the Natal Regiment of South African Infantry.[3] Thereafter, he moved back to England, convinced from his experiences in Africa of having "discovered" a world-wide Jewish conspiracy.[4][3]
Upon returning toLondon, Beamish ran as an independent candidate in the1918 Clapham by-election, pledging to "support the Premier in ousting the Hun and making Germany pay for the War".[4] He polled 43%,[5] losing against a government candidate by 1,181 votes.[4] In December 1918 Beamish ran again as a parliamentary candidate for theNational Federation of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers, coming out second by 6,706 votes.[4]
He became involved with the Vigilante League led byNoel Pemberton Billing. After a split within the League, he and Dr J. H. Clarke foundedThe Britons in 1919 as an organization specifically set up for the diffusion of antisemiticpropaganda.[3][1] Beamish also befriended Lieutenant-Commander Harry M. Frazer, the founder of theSilver Badge Party. In a deliberate provocation conceived to draw public attention, Beamish and Frazer produced a poster in March 1919 denouncing British-Jewish politicianSir Alfred Mond, then the First Commissioner of Works, as a traitor to his country. This resulted in alibel suit filed by Mond, who was successfully awarded £5000 by a court. Beamish fled Britain to South Africa in order to escape the payment.[6][3]
After that event, Beamish rarely returned to Britain and travelled the world to preachanti-Semitism.[7][3] Although he remained nominally president of The Britons until his death in 1947, Beamish subsequently participated little in the activities of the organisation, apart from two spectacular reappearances in 1923 and 1932.[8]
Beamish settled inRhodesia in 1920,[9] then he travelled toGermany in 1923 where he addressed one of Hitler's meetings at theCircus Krone on January 18, with a speech delivered in English and translated byDietrich Eckart.[8][3] He has claimed, rather dubiously, to have taughtAdolf Hitler.[10] Beamish served as vice-president of theImperial Fascist League.[11] In 1932 he addressed a meeting of theNew Party alongsideArnold Leese on the subject of "The Blindness of British Politics under the Jew Money-Power". Beamish had otherwise little involvement with the initiatives ofOswald Mosley.[9] Described by aSouth 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 theNordic League, an antisemitic organisation founded with German assistance one year earlier.[9]
In September 1936 Beamish visited Japan, then spoke at a meeting of theCanadian Nationalist Party inWinnipeg in October,[14] before embarking in December on a major lecture tour ofNazi Germany as a guest of Foreign MinisterJoachim von Ribbentrop. He met fellow fanatical anti-SemiteJulius Streicher inNuremberg in January 1937.[15] In September of the same year, Beamish attended an international antisemitic congress organised byUlrich Fleischhauer.[16] Beamish also spoke at meetings in North America with Canadian fascist leaderAdrien Arcand, including some hosted by theGerman American Bund.[17]
Beamish returned toSouthern Rhodesia in 1938. He became an independent Member of theSouthern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly in August 1938 following a by-election, but lost his seat in the April 1939 election. From June 1940, he was interned for his pro-Nazi sentiments. Upon his release in July 1943, Beamish moved to a farm nearSalisbury in England. By then, he had distanced himself from The Britons, whom he accused in a letter wrote two months before his death of departing from the "sole purpose" of the organisation, that is "exposing the Jewish Menace".[18] Beamish died on 27 March 1948.[8]
Beamish was one of the earliest proponents of theMadagascar Plan for theJewish Question.[15] In the early 1920s he proclaimed that "Bolshevism wasJudaism."[19]
| Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHartley 1938 – 1939 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
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