Free Articles: John Hutchyns Tyndall

John Tyndall (politician)

Chairman of the National Front
John Tyndall
Chairman of the British National Party
In office 1982 – September 1999
Deputy	Richard Edmonds
Succeeded by	Nick Griffin
In office 1976–1980
Preceded by	John Kingsley Read
Succeeded by	Andrew Brons
In office 1972–1974
Preceded by	John O'Brien
Succeeded by	John Kingsley Read

Born	July 14, 1934 Exeter, Devon, England
Died	July 19, 2005 aoremovetag(aged 71) Hove, East Sussex
Political party	League of Empire Loyalists 1954-1957, National Labour Party 1957-1960, British National Party (1960) 1960-1962, National Socialist Movement 1962-1964, Greater Britain Movement 1964-1967, National Front 1967-1980, New National Front 1980-1982, British National Party 1982-2005
Spouse(s)	Valerie Tyndall
Children	1 Girl

John Hutchyns Tyndall (14 July 1934 – 19 July 2005) was a British politician who was involved in a number of fascist movements in Britain, best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party (BNP) in 1982.

Perhaps the most prominent figure in British nationalism in the second-half of the twentieth century, his legacy has been highly controversial among opponents as well as sections of the modern BNP under his successor Nick Griffin. Throughout his career he was vehemently anti-Semitic as well as a firm believer in white racial superiority. His opponents as well as those of his associated movements such as the National Front and the BNP have frequently pointed to his involvement with the openly neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement and Spearhead as deputy leader under Colin Jordan in the early 1960s.

Early life

John Tyndall was born in Exeter in Devon, England, on July 14, 1934. The son of the warden of St George's House, a YMCA hostel at Southwark, he grew up in London. He was related to the early English translator of the Bible, William Tyndale, his ancestors having moved to County Waterford in Ireland in the 16th century.

Political career

Early politics

Tyndall was first politically active in the League of Empire Loyalists, a right-wing pressure group, led by A. K. Chesterton. In 1957, feeling that the League was not sufficiently active, he and John Bean left to form the National Labour Party. The Labour Party prevented the use of this name, and in 1960 it merged with the White Defence League of Colin Jordan to form the old British National Party (BNP) which was led by John Bean. At rallies Tyndall argued "What we need is a few machine guns" and "Hitler was right".

Tyndall left the original British National Party with Colin Jordan in 1962, when the National Socialist Movement was formed; Tyndall was Jordan's deputy. Spearhead was setup as the NSM's private army, based on the SA of Nazi Germany. In 1962, the police prosecuted Jordan, Tyndall, Martin Webster and Denis Pirie for paramilitary organising. He was imprisoned for several months after being found guilty on this charge.

In 1963, Tyndall fell out with Jordan over Françoise Dior, a wealthy Frenchwoman who, although she was originally engaged to Tyndall, hastily married Jordan, who had just been released from prison before Tyndall, to avoid being expelled from Britain as an undesirable alien. This act provoked a long-running schism between the two former allies, although in 2009 - at which point both were deceased - Tyndall's widow Valerie was reported to have claimed that Tyndall and Jordan were eventually reconciled.

In 1964, Tyndall set up his personal magazine, using the name Spearhead, which ran until his death. His political thoughts and comments, as well as those of select others - in most cases close political allies - were communicated. The magazine made up a great part of his personal revenue because, although he changed parties several times in his life, he retained the copyright over the name Spearhead. Tyndall formed the Greater Britain Movement that year, taking most of the members of the National Socialist Movement with him. Jordan was well in with the proprietor of the headquarters at 74, Princedale Road, London, W11 (the widow of Arnold Leese), so it was Tyndall who was obliged to quit the building but he retained his copy of the keys and during one of Jordan's prolonged absences, emptied the HQ of all the expensive equipment. A court of justice ruled that it was an internal affair and considering that both litigants were members of the same movement at the time in question, no theft had occurred. The Greater Britain Movement drifted from various accommodation addresses varying from an upper room in a pub named "The Silver Sword" in Petty France, London, SW1, to an address in Holborn, and finally invading the basement of the prestige address of "Westminster Chambers", which eventually became the first HQ of the National Front.

Tyndall spent much of the 1960s developing his ideological programme. He published the book The Authoritarian State in 1962, in which he claimed that liberal democracy was a Jewish tool of world domination that needed to be replaced by authoritarianism.

Later, Tyndall continued to develop his ideological programme and produced Six Principles of Nationalism (1966) which appeared to break with the neo-Nazi NSM and, instead, looked to electoral paths to government, which would be characterized by leadership, corporatism, moral regeneration, racial purity and a restored British Empire, and would be regularly ratified by referendums, bringing to mind the earlier calls of Sir Oswald Mosley who, along with his mother, Tyndall deeply respected. He would spend hours in front of a mirror perfecting Mosley's gestures. Tyndall’s new work impressed A. K. Chesterton, who at the same time was helping to reorganise the demoralised far-right.

National Front

When the National Front (NF) was formed in 1967, Tyndall pressed for the inclusion of the Greater Britain Movement. Eventually, a compromise was reached to allow individual members to join the NF, and Tyndall disbanded the Greater Britain Movement when they all had done so. Tyndall swiftly rose to the rank of Chairman when John O'Brien resigned, in which his principal responsibility was theory and political thinking.

Under Tyndall's guidance the Front grew in membership and gained many votes, peaking during the February general election of 1974. This success was not so much due to Tyndall's leadership, but was a direct result of Martin Webster's tactics of banging the drums in the streets. However Tyndall's leadership faced a number of challenges from both populists and Strasserites, beginning with a running feud with Roy Painter, then his replacement as leader by John Kingsley Read and culminating in the two groups uniting to form the National Party in 1976. After this split Tyndall was able to regain the Chair and re-establish his control in the NF. Tyndall advocated a neo-imperialist policy, leading to the formation of branches of the NF in South Africa and Australia in 1977.

For the 1979 general election, the Front put up 303 candidates: it lost each deposit everywhere. Internal recriminations saw Tyndall removed from all his positions and he opted to depart, setting up the New National Front (NNF) in 1980.

British National Party

As NNF leader, Tyndall sought to work with other groups and as a result the British National Party emerged in 1982 after he amalgamated his group with the British Democratic Party, elements of the Constitutional Movement and those members of the British Movement loyal to Ray Hill.

During his tenure as leader of the new BNP, Tyndall did little to dispel the perception that the BNP was a neo-Nazi organisation, and strongly resisted any attempts to soften the party's policies or image. Tyndall was convicted of publishing material likely to incite racial hated in 1986 and was jailed. During his time in prison, he completed the part-autobiographical part-political book The Eleventh Hour (ISBN 0-9513686-2-1), which he subsequently revised several times.

Deposed as leader

In 1999, Tyndall lost the leadership of the BNP to Nick Griffin. Afterwards he threatened, at times, to run against Griffin to regain the leadership, although he did not act on his threats. Griffin briefly expelled Tyndall, along with his two closest allies in the party Richard Edmonds and John Morse, from the BNP in 2002 for being a disruptive influence, although Tyndall was reinstated after a court case. In 2004, Tyndall joined in signing the New Orleans Protocol. The New Orleans Protocol seeks to "mainstream our cause" by reducing violence and internecine warfare, and was written by David Duke, When he signed, Tyndall made it clear that he was not acting on behalf of the BNP. For a time, he also became associated with Eddy Morrison who had split from the White Nationalist Party and organised a Spearhead Support Group to back Tyndall. However the alliance fell apart when Tyndall made it clear that he did not support Morrison's attempts to set up a new party (which eventually emerged as the Nationalist Alliance).

On December 12, 2004, Tyndall was arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred towards Michael Howard's Jewish roots and towards African people, following a BBC documentary which aired in July 2004. On April 6, 2005, he was charged by police with two offences of using words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up racial hatred.

Tyndall was found dead at his home in Hove, East Sussex, on July 19, 2005, less than a week after his 71st birthday. He was due to stand trial on charges of incitement to racial hatred at Leeds Magistrates' Court just two days later (July 21, 2005).

Personal life

His wife, Valerie – whom he met while both were in the National Front in the 1970s – stood as an NF candidate in Brighton, Kemptown, in the 1979 general election, and as BNP candidate in Hackney, South & Shoreditch in the 1983 general election and at Old Bexley & Sidcup in the 1997 general election. Her father, Charles Parker, became a leading member of the BNP in its early years and provided the party with a source of funding.

Elections contested by John Tyndall

UK Parliament elections

European Parliament elections

Elections contested by Valerie Tyndall