Viscount Lymington and British Fascism during the 1930s

Robert Chambers CHA11038465Individual Study

Robert Chambers

Canterbury Christchurch UniversityHistory DepartmentDissertationYear 3

Viscount Lymington and British Fascism during the 1930sRobert Chambers10,224 words

Supervisor: Dr John Bulatis

Table of ContentsPage numberIntroduction31. Background early years32. Historiography43. Definition of Fascism74. British Fascism7Chapter one: English Mistery8Chapter two: English Array20Chapter three: Political writings and meetings29Conclusion35Bilbography 40Annotated Bilbography46

IntroductionViscount Lymington (Gerard Vernon Wallop) was a prominent figure in British politics during the interwar years. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Basingstoke from 1929 to 1934. He championed numerous causes ranging from agriculture to politics. Viscount Lymington was also a leading figure in organisations called the English Mistery and the English Array. His involvement in these and other organisations raises questions about the links between a prominent member of the British establishment and fascism, and more widely about the nature of fascism in the 1930s. This dissertation considers Viscount Lymingtons life and British Fascism during the 1930s, and covers a number of different aspects, including Viscount Lymingtons involvement in the English Mistery, the English Array and his political writings and meetings. It also covers his involvement in many aspects of politics and agriculture during the 1930s and how his political writings and meetings influenced British Fascism during the 1930s. Finally, it sets out information gathered about Viscount Lymingtonss known involvement in British Fascism during the 1930s, and the extent to which this may have been under or over estimated.Background-early yearsGerard Vernon Wallop was born in Chicago in 1898.[footnoteRef:1] His mother was American and his father was English.[footnoteRef:2] He moved to England in 1915.[footnoteRef:3] In 1916 he joined the British Army as one of the last volunteers: he was officially an American citizen and could not be conscripted, as America had not entered the war.[footnoteRef:4] His first role was as an orderly in a hospital for French soldiers on the Western Front.[footnoteRef:5] In 1917 he was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant in 2nd Life Guards.[footnoteRef:6] In 1918, after the end of the War, he applied for demobilisation and went up to study modern history at Oxford followed by a post-graduate farming year at the Oxford School of Agriculture.[footnoteRef:7] In 1920 Wallop applied for British nationality[footnoteRef:8] and in the spring of 1923 took over his first farm in Hampshire.[footnoteRef:9] He was a member of the Conservative party; he became a county councillor for Whitchurch in 1923.[footnoteRef:10] In 1926, Gerard Wallop became Viscount Lymington, when his father became the Earl of Portsmouth. The title of Viscount was a courtesy title: he explained I was, while Lord Lymington, officially a commoner, and so could sit in the House of Commons, if I could get elected, until my fathers death.[footnoteRef:11] He was elected as an MP for Basingstoke in 1929. [1: Phillip Cornford Organic Society: Agriculture and Radical Politics in the Career of Gerald Wallop, Ninth Earl of Portsmouth (1898-1984), The Agriculture History Review, Vol. 53, pp.78-92(p.82).] [2: The Earl of Portsmouth, A Knot of Roots (London: Geoffrey Bles LTD, 1965), p.1. ] [3: The Earl of Portsmouth, A Knot of Roots, p.25.] [4: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.31.] [5: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.31.] [6: The London Gazette, no. 29918, The Gazette Official Public Record, supplement 934, 25th January, 1917, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29918/page/934 (accessed March 5, 2014)] [7: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.33-34.] [8: The London Gazette, no.31978, The Gazette Official Public Record, p.7486, 12th July, 1920, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31978/page/7486 (accessed March 5, 2014)] [9: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.36.] [10: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.98.] [11: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.2.]

Historiography Viscount Lymington became involved in the English Mistery in 1930. William Sanderson formed the English Mistery in 1930 and the name of the organisation came from his book, That Which Was Lost: A Treatise on Freemasonry and the English Mistery.[footnoteRef:12] Historians have not reached a consensus on how the English Mistery should be categorised. The word Mistery, came from the phrase Crafts and Misteries.[footnoteRef:13] Historian E.H.H Green describes the English Mistery as A Conservative fringe movement of the early 1930s, which advocated the restoration of the feudal system as a solution to Britains social and political problems[footnoteRef:14], whilst historian Thomas Linean describes the English Mistery as A reactionary ultra-royalist, anti-democratic body.[footnoteRef:15] Historians Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley say the English Mistery was a back to the land movement.[footnoteRef:16] These different interpretations of the English Mistery illustrate the difficulties of defining the organisation. [12: William Sanderson, That Which Was Lost: A Treatise on Freemasonry and the English Mistery (London: Constable & Co Ltd, 1930, Kessinger Legacy Reprints).] [13: The Earl of Portsmouth, p.127. ] [14: E. H. H. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), P.151.] [15: Thomas Linean, British Fascism, 1918-1939: Parties, Ideology and Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 200), p.141.] [16: Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopaedia of British and Irish Political Organisations (London: A Continuum Imprint, 2000), p.182.]

The same divergence of historical views applies to the English Array. The definition of Array means, to prepare, and implying militant response to duty, the name used by the old feudal levies, the cry of the archers of Agincourt.[footnoteRef:17] Some historians describe the English Array, as it was an overtly fascist splinter group from the English Mistery.[footnoteRef:18] Other historians describe the English Array as Lymington calling for back to the land policies which would prevent any social disorder caused by possible famine.[footnoteRef:19] The differing definitions or descriptions illustrate that ideologies on the far right of the political spectrum had overlapping aims. [17: Lord Lymington, English Mistery Surfleet Camp, The Quarterly Gazette of the English Array, September 1937.London: British Library, General Reference Collection P.P.7000.ab. ] [18: Malcolm Chase, >> North Sea and Baltic>North Sea and Baltic