![[British Fascisti]](../images/g/gb}bf1.gif)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists
Last modified: 2023-10-21 by rob raeside
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image located by Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists
The British Fascists (originally called the British Fascisti), BF, formed on
May 6, 1923 by Rotha Lintorn-Orman in the aftermath of Benito Mussolini's March
on Rome of October 27-31, 1922 and originally operated under the
Italian-sounding name British Fascisti, was the first political organisation in
the United Kingdom to claim the label of fascist, although the group had little
ideological unity apart from anti-socialism for much of its existence, and was
strongly associated with conservatism. In fact, it claims to be a split from the
Conservative Party and in its logo it featured the Tudor rose, a reference to
floral symbolism in British political parties. The ideals of the Boy Scout
movement, with which many early members had also been involved in their younger
days, also played a role, for the British Fascisti wished, according to General
R.B.D. Blakeney, who was the BF President from 1924 to 1926, to "uphold the same
lofty ideas of brotherhood, service and duty".
The group changed its name
in 1924 from British Fascisti to British Fascists, in an attempt to distance
itself from the Italian associations, although this move helped to bring about a
split in the group with a more ideologically fascist group, the National
Fascisti (1924-1928) (renamed British National Fascists, BNF) in July 1926),
going its own way.
After 1931 the BF abandoned its attempts to form a
distinctly British version of Fascism, and instead adopted the full programme of
Mussolini and his National Fascist Party. The already weakened group split
further in 1932 over the issue of a merger with Oswald Mosley's New Party, NP
(1931-1932), when most of NP's members merged with the
British Union of Fascists (1932-1940) and a minor part went to the Scottish
Democratic Fascist Party, SDFP (1933). In a bid to reverse its decline the party
adopted a strongly anti-semitic platform. However, since the party's decline
after the General Strike in 1926 (May 4-6), its membership started to decline
mainly because it was becoming more of a "Bolshevik" style party (with protests
and strikes), when it was intended to be quite the contrary.
The party
was declared bankrupt in 1934 and most of its members ended in the British Union
of Fascists.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Fascisti
The flag is a white
horizontal background with the logo in the middle and party's name on the sides.
Images:
![[British Fascisti]](../images/g/gb}bf.jpg)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023
Image cropped from the original located here:
https://www.nuevatribuna.es, source:
https://www.nuevatribuna.es/
Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023
The rose in the logo is actually a combination of the Tudor rose and the
Luther rose:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_rose
Note that both rows of petals
are white, and there is a black cross in the center of the flower, while the
heart is missing.
While these sources do not reveal the party name
completely, in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JiFlN6U25A8, it is completely
visible, so it is clear that the second word is indeed FASCISTS, not FASCISTI.
Tomislav Todorovic, 12 September 2023
![[British Fascisti]](../images/g/gb}bf-titl.jpg)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
From your source, please see the title card (image attached) with the
description of the group which mentions Fascisti (also in the video description
on YouTube).
Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
![[British Fascisti]](../images/g/gb}bf-bour.jpg)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
From the same video one can see the Bournemouth branch of the BF.
Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
The video is from 1925 i.e. after the name change, so the flags had been
updated. The authors of the video must have used the previous name in the title
card because they expected the audience still remembered the previous name well
enough, so they wanted to exclude the possibility of anybody thinking that a
completely new group was presented. The new name on the flags was visible for
too short a time and most viewers would not have enough time to notice it
anyway, at least without pausing it (which would have not happened in the cinema
anyway).
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 September 2023
![[British Fascisti]](../images/g/gb}bf).gif)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023
Image from the original located here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists, source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists
Esteban Rivera, 11 September 2023
