Stewards (paramilitary organization)

The Stewards also informally referred to as Blackshirts were the paramilitary wing of the British Union of Fascists (BUF).[1] They served a similar role as the Blackshirts of the National Fascist Party of Italy and also wore black uniforms. The Stewards were officially an organization of guards that were to protect Oswald Mosley and eject groups of hecklers from the audience of speeches by BUF officials.[2] In practice the Stewards physically assaulted hecklers and political opponents with truncheons of rubber or lead.[2]

Olympia, June 1934

During a gathering of 12,000 BUF members at Olympia on 7 June 1934, the Stewards violently counterattacked an anti-fascist attempt to disrupt a speech by Mosley. The savagery of the attack - Stewards used knives and knuckledusters - led to Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail, to withdraw the support of his paper. The resulting poor publicity also led to a decline in BUF membership.[3]

References

  1. ↑ David Stephen Lewis. Illusions of grandeur: Mosley, fascism, and British society, 1931-81. Pp. 115-117.
  2. 1 2 David Stephen Lewis. Illusions of grandeur: Mosley, fascism, and British society, 1931-81. Pp. 115-116.
  3. ↑ Exporting Fascism: Italian Fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s Claudia Baldoli p.42
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