Colin Jordan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jordan in August 1962 | |
| Leader of theBritish Movement | |
| In office 1962–1975 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Michael McLaughlin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Colin Campbell Jordan (1923-06-19)19 June 1923 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 9 April 2009(2009-04-09) (aged 85) Pateley Bridge,North Yorkshire, England |
| Political party | British Peoples Party White Defence League British Movement British National Party National Socialist Movement |
| Spouse | |
| Domestic partner(s) | Julianna Safrany (?? – his death) |
| Residence | Pateley Bridge |
| Alma mater | Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Teacher, politician, activist, writer |
John Colin Campbell Jordan (19 June 1923 – 9 April 2009) was a British politician and a leading figure in post-warneo-Nazism in the UK. In thefar-right circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitlyNazi inclination in his open use of thestyles and symbols ofNazi Germany. Through his leadership of organisations such as theNational Socialist Movement and theWorld Union of National Socialists, Jordan advocated a pan-Aryan "Universal Nazism". Although later unaffiliated with any political party, Jordan remained an influential voice on the Britishfar right.
John Colin Campbell Jordan was born in Birmingham on 19 June 1923.[1] The son of a lecturer, Percy Jordan, and a teacher, Bertha Jordan,[2] Jordan was educated atWarwick School from 1934 to 1942. During theSecond World War he attempted to enlist in theFleet Air Arm and theRAF, but, after failing the tests for both, he enlisted in theRoyal Army Educational Corps.[3] After being demobilised in 1946 he studied atSidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating in 1949 withsecond class honours in history.[4][5] That same year he became a teacher at Stoke Secondary Modern Boys School,Coventry,[5] where he taught mathematics. In 1953, he received hisM.A. He joined theLeague of Empire Loyalists and became itsMidlands organiser.[6]
AtCambridge Jordan formed a Nationalist Club.[7] Jordan soon became associated withArnold Leese and was left the use of a house in Leese's will. This became theNotting Hill[7] base of operations when Jordan launched theWhite Defence League in 1956.[8] Jordan later merged this party with theNational Labour Party to form theBritish National Party in 1960,[9] although he split from it after a quarrel withJohn Bean, who was opposed to Jordan's advocacy of Nazism.[citation needed]
In 1962, Jordan founded theNational Socialist Movement (renamed theBritish Movement in 1968) withJohn Tyndall as its leader. A meeting inTrafalgar Square on 2 July 1962[10] of supporters was disrupted by opponents, whom Jordan described as being "Jews andCommunists",[11] leading to a riot. He was dismissed by the board of governors of the Coventry school where he taught[7] in August 1962 after a period of suspension[12] that had begun after the events in Trafalgar Square.[10]
In August 1962 Jordan hosted an international conference of Nazis atGuiting Power inGloucestershire, which resulted in the formation of theWorld Union of National Socialists. Jordan was the commander of its European section throughout the 1960s and was also elected "World Führer" withGeorge Lincoln Rockwell, founder of theAmerican Nazi Party, as his deputy.[13] On 16 August Jordan and Tyndall, together withMartin Webster,Denis Pirie and Roland Kerr-Ritchie, were charged under thePublic Order Act 1936 with attempting to set up a paramilitary force[14] called the Spearhead, which was modelled on theSA ofNazi Germany. Undercover police observed Jordan leading the group in military manoeuvres.[15] He was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in October 1962.[7][16]
On 5 October 1963, whileJohn Tyndall was still in prison, Jordan, who had just been released, married Tyndall's fiancée,Françoise Dior, the former wife of a French nobleman and the niece of the French fashion designerChristian Dior. This hasty marriage was ostensibly to prevent her deportation as an undesirable alien. When Tyndall was eventually released, the marriage caused friction, and he split with Jordan in 1964 to form theGreater Britain Movement. Jordan's marriage to Dior proved short-lived, though, and she announced the couple's separation in January 1964. She claimed that Jordan had become "bourgeois".[17] The couple nevertheless remained married until their divorce in 1967.[18][unreliable source?][permanent dead link]
During theLeyton by-election of 1965 Jordan led a group of about 100 fascist demonstrators at a publicLabour Party meeting, and after taking to the stage to berate the audience he was punched byDenis Healey, the thenSecretary of State for Defence.[19] The fracas came about because the far right was using theby-election to stir up interracial hatred in order to defeat the Labour candidate (andForeign Secretary)Patrick Gordon Walker. He had previously been defeated in the1964 general election in theSmethwick constituency after racist campaigning tactics[20][permanent dead link] were employed by Colin Jordan and his followers.[21] Specifically, Jordan claimed that his group produced the much publicised "If you want anigger for a neighbour, voteLiberal or Labour" slogan and launched the campaign to circulate the posters and stickers which the slogan was written on; in the past Jordan's group had also written and circulated other campaign slogans, such as: "Don't vote – a vote for Tory, Labour or Liberal is a vote for moreBlacks!".[21] The successfulConservative candidate wasPeter Griffiths, who did little to condemn the campaign. On 25 January 1967, Jordan was sentenced to eighteen months in prison at Devon Assizes in Exeter for breaking theRace Relations Act 1965 by circulating material that was likely to cause racial hatred.[22] At the same time, Jordan was prosecuted and convicted under the Public Order Act 1936 for distributing a leaflet titled "The Coloured Invasion", "a vituperative attack on black and Asian people".[7][22]
In September 1972, Jordan was fined for disorderly behaviour at Heathrow Airport when, after protesting against the arrival ofUgandan Asians into Britain, he addressed airport staff through a loudspeaker, urging them to strike in protest against mass immigration from Uganda.[23]
Jordan reorganised the National Socialist Movement as the British Movement in 1968, but in 1974 he was obliged to step down from its leadership in favour ofMichael McLaughlin. His demise was further accelerated by his arrest and subsequent conviction forshoplifting three pairs of women's red knickers fromTesco'sLeamington Spa[19] branch in June 1975. Magistrates fined him £50 for the offence.[4][24]
While leader of the British Movement, Jordan stood forparliament on three occasions: in the1969 Birmingham Ladywood by-election (282 votes, 3.0%);Birmingham Aston in the1970 general election (704 votes, 2.5%) andWolverhampton North East in theFebruary 1974 general election (711 votes, 1.5%).[25]
Jordan maintained ties to groups led byEddy Morrison and Kevin Watmough, such as theWhite Nationalist Party and theBritish People's Party as well as the American National Socialist Workers Party. In 2000, he expressed scepticism over the efforts of theBritish National Party to soften its hard right stance.[5]
In the 1980s, Jordan revivedGothic Ripples, originally Leese's publication, as his personal political project.[26] He once declared that there was "no reliable evidence whatsoever" that six million Jews had been murdered in theHolocaust.[24] In 1989, he stated his belief thatJesus was "counterfeit" andAdolf Hitler was the real "messiah" and "saviour", whose eventual "resurrection" would make him "the spiritual conqueror of the future".[24]
Jordan was back in court in 2001, after being charged with publishing racist literature, but the judge ruled that his serious heart condition made him unfit to stand trial.[24] He dedicated his 2004 bookThe Uprising to the jailed white supremacists Richard Scutari andDavid Lane.[27] Jordan and Julianne Safrany became life partners at some point after his divorce from Dior.[4] The two were still together when Jordan died at hisPateley Bridge home on 9 April 2009.[4][24]
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