Oliver Locker-Lampson - Post-World War I Career

Post-World War I Career

Partly because of his experiences in Russia, Locker-Lampson became fiercely anti-Communist and suspicious of covert Bolshevik influence in Britain's economy, society and politics. In the 1920s he organised several mass rallies under the banner 'Rout the Reds', some of which were stewarded by members of Rotha Lintorn-Orman's British Fascisti. In 1931, he founded the "Sentinels of Empire", also known as the Blue Shirts, a quasi-paramilitary organisation "to peacefully fight Bolshevism and clear out the Reds!" Their motto was his family motto "Fear God! Fear Naught!" Their anthem, "March On", with words written by Locker-Lampson, was sold as sheet music and as a 78 rpm record.

Although Locker-Lampson claimed that the organisation had 100,000 members, the Blue Shirts were short-lived and had practically no impact. Nevertheless, much to Locker-Lampson's embarrassment they did attract the attention of Adolf Hitler. In 1932, Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg visited Britain, and was introduced to Locker-Lampson by F. W. Winterbotham, who was managing Rosenberg's contacts on behalf of MI6. Rosenberg got the impression that Blue Shirts were a genuine fascist movement, and presented Locker-Lampson with a solid gold cigarette case, which he returned with some embarrassment.

From 1933 onwards, Locker-Lampson directed his political ire against fascism both in Britain and in continental Europe. In July 1933 he introduced a Private member's bill to extend British citizenship to Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution, though it failed to become law. In September, he provided Albert Einstein with refuge at a camp on Roughton Heath near his home in Cromer in north Norfolk, after Einstein had received death threats while living in Belgium. He later worked to help other high profile victims of fascism, including Haile Selassie and Sigmund Freud, as well as numerous ordinary Jewish people, whom he personally sponsored in order they might escape Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria. Some have called his efforts "exceptional in how he saved Jews from Germany."

In 1934 he introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill to ban the wearing of political uniforms - specifically aimed at Oswald Mosley's Black Shirts (British Union of Fascists). The Bill did not become law, but a similar bill sponsored by the government did become law in 1936. In 1935 he was a founding member of Focus, a cross-party group opposed to the prevailing policy of Appeasement of German and Italian aggression. In 1936 he was instrumental in the successful prosecution of the British fascist Arnold Leese for his publication of anti-Semitic literature. Throughout the 1930s he was one of the few Conservative MPs to continue to support Winston Churchill during his "wilderness years" of political isolation.

Age and ill-health prevented him from taking a very active part in the Second World War, though he joined the Home Guard and continued to support Winston Churchill vociferously from the backbenches. He retired from politics at the 1945 General Election.