Jeffrey Hamm facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jeffrey Hamm
Personal details
Born	Edward Jeffrey Hamm (1915-09-15)15 September 1915 Ebbw Vale, Wales
Died	4 May 1992(1992-05-04) (aged 76)
Political party	British Union of Fascists, Union Movement

Edward Jeffrey Hamm (born 15 September 1915 – died 4 May 1992) was a well-known British political figure. He was a strong supporter of Oswald Mosley and his ideas. Hamm was not a major leader in Mosley's group before World War II. However, he became a very important person after the war. He eventually took over as the leader of the Union Movement when Mosley retired.

Early Life and Joining the BUF

Jeffrey Hamm was born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, in 1915. His father was away fighting in the First World War at the time. Later, his family moved to Monmouth.

It is said that Hamm first became interested in the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1934. He was on a trip to London and saw a BUF member giving a speech. He was very impressed by what he heard.

In 1935, Hamm moved to London to work as a teacher. That's when he officially joined the BUF. He was a young member and stayed mostly as a regular supporter, not a top leader.

World War II and Internment

In 1939, Hamm moved to the Falkland Islands to work as a teacher. But in 1940, he was arrested. This happened because he was accused of trying to spread fascist ideas to his students.

He was then sent to a camp in South Africa. While there, he tried to dig a tunnel to escape. This camp also held some German prisoners. A report from the British intelligence service (MI5) suggested that Hamm might have been influenced by their ideas.

Hamm was sent back to Britain in 1941. He joined the Royal Tank Regiment in the army. However, he was seen as someone who caused trouble. He was taken off the front lines and left the army in 1944. After leaving the army, he worked at a coach factory and later as a bookkeeper.

Around this time, Hamm became a Roman Catholic. He was influenced by a priest who supported Nazi ideas and disliked Jewish people. This priest even had a photo of Mosley in his home. Hamm and his wife were married by this priest, and it's said that they saluted a Nazi flag during the ceremony.

Returning to Politics After the War

Even though Hamm was a minor figure before the war, his time in the prison camps made him an even stronger supporter of Mosley. In fact, Mosley didn't even know who Hamm was at first.

But Hamm quickly became one of Mosley's most active and vocal supporters after the war. He joined a group called the British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women. This group was supposed to help veterans. Hamm took it over and changed it to promote Mosley's ideas.

Hamm started organizing meetings in Hyde Park in November 1944. Later, he moved these meetings to East London, which was a traditional area for Mosley's supporters. Hamm's rallies began to attract thousands of people. This made him believe that Mosley's political movement could make a comeback.

However, Hamm's rallies also faced a lot of opposition. There were often clashes between his supporters and people who were against fascism. Hamm's growing public presence was noticed by both his supporters and his opponents. In 1946, he was badly beaten by anti-fascist groups. Another similar incident in Brighton in 1948 sent him to the hospital.

Mosley was unsure about Hamm at first. But in December 1946, Mosley officially supported Hamm's leadership. He called Hamm his "East End representative." However, in 1947, Mosley told Hamm to calm down his speeches because they were too violent and extreme.

The Union Movement and Later Years

Hamm soon began asking Mosley to return as the leader of British fascism. In 1948, when the Union Movement (UM) was founded, Hamm brought his British League into it right away.

Hamm became a key member of the new UM. However, he was known for being difficult. He was so unpopular at the UM headquarters that Mosley sent him to Manchester in 1949. Hamm struggled to improve the UM's presence there. He even thought about leaving the UM until Mosley called him back in 1952.

Back in London, Hamm became a central figure in the UM's new campaign against black immigrants. This campaign gained some support in areas like Brixton, where new immigrants from the West Indies were settling. Hamm received a lot of attention from the press. This happened especially after the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, when he gave a speech outside Latimer Road tube station.

Hamm later served as Mosley's personal secretary for the UM. He took on this role after another leader, Alexander Raven Thomson, passed away in 1955. Like Mosley, Hamm strongly supported Irish unity. He encouraged Mosley to campaign on this issue.

Hamm ran as a UM candidate in the 1966 United Kingdom general election in the Birmingham Handsworth area. He received 4% of the votes. After this election, Mosley mostly stepped away from public life. The UM then came under the leadership of Hamm and Robert Row, who were the last two paid UM activists.

Mosley was officially the UM leader until 1973, when he formally retired. Hamm, who had already been the effective leader, then officially took over. Under Hamm, the party was relaunched as the Action Party. They ran in the 1973 Greater London Council elections but did not win. In 1978, the party changed its name to the Action Society. It stopped being a political party and became a publishing house instead.

Hamm wrote his autobiography, Action Replay, in 1983. In 1988, he published his second book, The Evil Good Men Do. After Mosley died in 1980, Hamm published and edited a magazine called Lodestar. This magazine came out every three months and supported Mosley's ideas. It included writings by people like Diana Mosley.

Jeffrey Hamm passed away in 1992 from Parkinson's disease.

Elections Contested