Right-wing extremists

Right-wing extremists

Fay Taylour (KV 2/2143-2144)

This heavily weeded and reconstituted file deals with the Security Service's interest in Fay Taylour (1908-1983), well known in the inter-war years as an Irish speedway motorcyclist and motor racing driver, who came to the attention of the Security Service because of her extreme right-wing views. Her support for the British Union of Fascists is noted in KV 2/2143  (1939-1941) which contains the correspondence leading up to her internment in May 1940. The file includes the text of her appeal hearing in August 1940, which was characterised by such peculiarities as her distress at having to appear without a hat (serial 58a). The appeal against internment was rejected. The file includes some of Taylour's intercepted correspondence, including some that she managed to smuggle out of prison to avoid the censor. The story continues in KV 2/2144 (1941-1953) of which perhaps the most interesting element is the Home Office decision, against the advice of the Security Service, to release Taylour from internment on the Isle of Man in October 1943, on condition that she left the UK and resided in Ireland. The Service was worried that she would provide details to the German legation in Dublin of arrangements for internees and particular cases on the Isle of Man. In the minuting leading up to this decision in June 1943 Taylour is described as "…one of the worst pro-Nazis in Port Erin…she is in the habit of hoarding pictures of Hitler and had in her possession a hymn in which his name was substituted for God's."

Viscountess Dorothy Downe (KV 2/2146)

This slim, heavily weeded file covering 1933-1941details the Security Service's interest in Viscountess Downe, who was noted as "a most fanatical admirer of Hitler" and was a secret member of the British Union of Fascists. A warrant was granted to intercept her correspondence, which showed clear evidence that she was in contact with extreme right-wing activists. Although she was in many respects a clear candidate for internment, this step was not taken, and the reason why is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the file. A minute of May 1940 records: "it was decided that no action should be taken with regard to Viscountess Downe for the present. If too many titled people are arrested the public might get the wrong idea as to the importance of the Fifth Column in this country." The file includes details of the Viscountess' contact with her local constabulary, and includes her own suggestion, after she claimed to have seen the error of her ways regarding the Fifth Column, as to how she might warn the police secretly if an enemy parachutist came to her for assistance.