A.F.X. Baron

Anthony Francis Xavier Baron (4 October 1913 – 1974) was a British far-right political figure in the 1940s and 1950s who founded and headed the English branch of the Nationalist Information Bureau (NATINFORM). Baron has been described as "a stocky man..., with the features of a professional boxer."[1] He operated from a base in Framlingham, Suffolk.[2]

Baron was a supporter of Arnold Leese and attempted, with other Leese supporters in 1948, to establish a new group called the National Workers Party, with Baron as nominal leader. The group however floundered, due largely to the internal struggles between Baron and another leading member Tony Gittens.[3]

Baron subsequently became close to Peter Huxley-Blythe and the two established NATINFORM in the early 1950s.[4] The pair soon quarrelled, with Huxley-Blythe attacking Baron as a Nazi, and both Baron and his closest ally, Karl Smets (head of a German branch of NATINFORM) were expelled from the group.[5] However they established their own version of NATINFORM and it soon became the more important of the two claimant to the name.[6] During the 1950s Baron co-operated closely with South African far-right leader Oswald Pirow after Pirow ended his earlier relationship with Oswald Mosley.[7] In the 1960s and 1970s Baron ran the East Anglian Forum in Ipswich. He used to issue monthly bulletins about various issues. Some were about stopping abortions or not joining the Common Market, others were about supporting South Africa and the apartheid government. Mostly he seemed to concentrate on supporting the Smith government in Rhodesia. He also supported Dr David Brown who ran for parliament for the National Democratic Party in Ipswich. He used to hold quite large public meetings and was a supporter of Enoch Powell.

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Tauber, p. 244
  2. ↑ Coogan (1999), p. 416
  3. ↑ Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century, Continuum, 2000, pp. 190-191
  4. ↑ Peter Huxley-Blythe obituary
  5. ↑ Coogan (1999), p. 413
  6. ↑ Coogan (1999), p. 411
  7. ↑ Macklin, p. 85


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