The Right Club - Pro Nazi British Fifth Column of World War II

The Right Club – pro-Nazi British 5^th Column

Archibald Ramsay

The Right Club was formed in 1939 as the United Kingdom drifted closer to the inevitable conflict with National Socialist Germany. In Britain, there was a portion of ‘well to do’ people in society who believed the new German state led by Adolf Hitler was right concerning Jewish people in western culture. The Right club was a British anti-Semitic group whose aim was to make peace with Germany and expose, what they believed to be Jewish-dominated areas of public life throughout Britain. In short, The Right Club desired Britain to become a fascist National Socialist Society in the same mould as Germany. To a degree, many within British society were too preoccupied with the events unfolding in Europe and they regarded The Right Club to be a bit of a pathetic joke – an indulgence of upper-class pink gin-swilling Toffs who had nothing better to do.

The leader of this little band of fascist adventurers was an MP called Archibald Ramsay. Originally a Scottish Unionist MP, but from 1930 onwards he had developed an anti-Semitic view. During this period he became an outspoken opponent of supporters to the left wing cause during the Spanish Civil War, often blaming Soviet intervention for all manner of things. He was a staunch British patriot in perverted ways but then so was Hitler for Germany. Archibald Ramsay had very flawed views as far as a lot of British people were concerned and could not gain any voice in Parliament – any voice of note that is. As the thirties decade progressed and the inevitable war drew close, Archibald Ramsay formed his Right Club with his little group of, perhaps, self-indulgent people who thought along the same lines.

This group of die hard nonconformists waded into alcoves of the establishment - poking and prodding about for avenues of help concerning their twisted ambition. Whilst the British government did not take them seriously; The Right Club stumbled upon a few fine finds and almost brought about a calamity that could have shook the British government to the core and may have isolated the UK in her fight against Germany. This would have led to an event destroying the American President Roosevelt’s ability to push through a lend-lease program for Britain to continue the war against Germany and eventually lead to the USA entering the war on Britain’s side against Germany.

In October of 1939, the US Embassy in London saw the arrival from Moscow of a new cypher clerk known as Tyler Gatewood Kent. He was a 28-year-old who had been moved from Moscow and there seems to have been some controversy surrounding the man even then. He began frequenting the Russian Tea Rooms in London where he met Anna Wolkoff, the daughter of a White Russian Admiral exiled in London after the Bolshevik revolution. She was a member of The Right Club and also spying for Nazi Germany. She began an affair with Tyler Kent and persuaded him to help the cause of The Right Club led by Archibald Ramsay who was sympathetic to the aims of Germany. By now Britain was at war with Germany and the subversive Brits were still hoping to find peace with Germany. They knew the U.S. Government was sympathetic to Britain and France in their stand against Hitler’s National Socialist Germany and needed to find ways of stopping the growing support that President Roosevelt might promote over time. If they could find a way of enhancing scepticism among the voting U.S. public, perhaps Britain might become isolated and starved into peace negotiations with Germany, thus allowing Britain to develop its own National Socialist regime after the Wartime Government fell.

Tyler Kent was recruited to the cause and in essence, was now also working for a pro-Nazi Brit organisation against his U.S. government’s interests and that of the United Kingdom’s established wartime government. As the cypher clerk, he was privy to all secret correspondence between the UK and USA. These important documents, he was able to take to The Right Club where Archibald Ramsay was allowed to sift through them, at his leisure, looking for ways of quickening his country’s exit from the war and becoming in tune with Germany. It should be noted that some think Tyler Kent may have already been working for Soviet Communists and was trying to infiltrate pro-Nazi organisations pretending to have anti-Semitic beliefs. There is something of an enigma about Tyler Kent.

Maxwell Knight – British MI5 Agent

All during the 1920s and 1930s, Britain was in the grip of various new political organisations, from right wing fascists known as Blackshirts and led by Oswald Mosley – plus there were communist inspired trade unions trying to promote all sorts of radical new ideas for Britain. Many of these organisations were infiltrated by British MI5. Head of MI5, Vernon Kell had put a man called Maxwell Knight in charge of infiltrating these subversive groups in the UK. Maxwell Knight had been monitoring The Right Club’s activities and knew that British MP Archibald Ramsay was the secret head of this group. He had three women inside the organisation that were secret MI5 agents and through these field agents, he began to gather intelligence. The ladies were Joan Miller, Marjorie Amor, and Helen de Munk.

JoanMiller worked alongside Anna Wolkoff and very close to Archibald Ramsay who had no idea one of his most trusted helpers was an MI5 agent. Miller and Marjorie Amor discovered that Anna Wolkoff was gathering UK/US secret cyphers from Tyler Kent and then passing it to an Italian Naval attaché who would pass the information to Rome and from there to Berlin. Because the contacts belonged to Joan Miller, Anna Wolkoff would need to come to her to use Italian contacts to pass information via Rome to Berlin.

Maxwell Knight decided to set a trap by using infiltrators to approach Anna Wolkoff in stages at the Russian tea rooms. It was an MI5 agent pretending to be the dedicated British Fascist party member of Black Shirts which was led by Oswald Mosley. The infiltrator was, in fact, a real member of the Black Shirts in all official terms and was friends with William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) who was by now in Germany broadcasting Nazi propaganda for the National Socialist cause and a British traitor. This posing Black Shirt was also working for MI5 as a spy. If Maxwell Knight could find documents or evidence of a British MP liaising with a known traitor, he could expose all subversive elements in British society including MP Archibald Ramsay. Anna Wolkoff took the message and once again went to Joan Miller with a request to use Italian agents for a message via Rome to Berlin and William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw). Knowing for certain that Anna Wolkoff and Archibald Ramsay were traitors; Maxwell got an agent named Guy Liddell to visit the U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy to ask him to waver Tyler Kent’s diplomatic immunity so that MI5 and Special Branch could raid his apartment and arrest him. The urgency of this was made clear to Joseph Kennedy and he agreed to give the British secret service a free hand.

MI5raided Tyler Kent’s place and found him in bed with a young lady. The young American cypher clerk was caught quite literally with his trousers down. Inside a cupboard, they found a case containing almost 2,000 files, among them a plea from Winston Churchill to President Roosevelt asking for 50 American ships to be handed over to Britain in her efforts to win the Atlantic War which was beginning in earnest as the German Wolf packs went against the shipping lanes. If this document had been exposed it would have caused a political embarrassment for the U.S. government and would have caused U.S. public opinion to go against their President taking sides in a war that Americans did not, at this time, want to get involved in. This would have left Britain isolated as France fell and the British Army were driven out of mainland Europe for the next four years. Also within Tyler Kent’s case was a book containing the list of all members of the Right Club meticulously logged by MP Archibald Ramsay.

Winston Churchill had just come to power after Chamberlin had resigned and he had no hesitation in addressing the issue of the subversive elements – no matter how futile they might seem. The Right Club had been underestimated by the government, but not MI5. The British Government would become much more alert in future.

Tyler Kent and Anna Walkoff were charged under the official secrets act. Anna Walkoff got 10 years while Tyler Kent got 7 years. Archibald Ramsay was not charged but was interned in Brixton prison under a defence regulation act, throughout the remainder of the war.

This was a major win for MI5 but things did run very close to the wire. In later years it was claimed the Ian Fleming (James Bond writer) based his character Mon Maxwell Knight. He carried on his work for MI5 and was a naturalist who wrote books. Joan Miller who was one of his successful agents claimed he was homosexual. He died in 1968 age 67.

Archibald Ramsay was to remain in prison throughout the war. He tried to take the New York Times Newspaper to court for running a story on him giving information to the Germans via Dublin, Ireland. He was able to win his case in court against the New York Times, but all the judge awarded him was a farthing in damages. That is less than a nickel in the U.S. He was also liable for the court costs that were very hefty. The New York Times people must have been laughing at such sweet defeat. He died in 1955 age 60.

Anna Walkoff was released from prison in 1947 after her British naturalisation was revoked because she was guilty of spying for Germany. She was killed in a car crash in Spain in 1973. The friend driving the car was another member of The Right Wing Club – Britain’s main subversive anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi force.

Tyler Kent, the young American Cipher was released from prison and deported back to the USA after the war. He got a newspaper running and became linked to the Ku Klux Klan. Although he was seen as a right-wing political activist; his own nation’s security service FBI, believed he was a Soviet sympathiser. He had been made to leave Moscow in 1939 under some suspicion. The Soviets liked to recruit western traitors that appeared Right Wing in their political views so there could be some merit in this. He died a poor man in 1988 in a Texas trailer park.    

Sources:

Spartacus Educational

Archives Hub

State Secrets

The Deighton Dossier

MI5 Security Service

Avalanche Press

Red Dawn Remake - So awful it is good - a must watch for the crack

Cast fresh from the catwalk

What I like about Americans is that they will try lots of different things and are not afraid to make a mistake. They make great movies sometimes and then on other occasions they can do some dreadful ones too. As a Brit, it is a bit like calling the kettle black, because the UK does make some bad ones too. It’s just when the US make a bad film it seems to be on a much more elaborate scale. The consequences of this is that sometimes an awful film can become so bad, that it ends up good and entertaining in a comical way. That will get the audience and will get watched again, despite being; not too good. The first Red Dawn was like this because it seemed so far-fetched – yet everyone wanted to see it. It must have made money back in the eighties. So on this basis – fair play to the people who had the neck (balls – if American) to make the movie in the first place.

Whoever decided to do the Red Dawn remake must have had some neck too. My mind boggles at the very nerve as this person sat before the people who might fund such a film project. Only in America and all must have seen beyond the dire script and the reality to the big buck signs. Fair play again and perhaps it’s a case of he who dares wins? Therefore they deserve to make money if this movie does get watched.

It is a real zap bang wollop film – explosions and machine guns with plastic ultra-good-looking people fighting nasty guys who have invaded America – the land of the free.

This is where the fun starts. So you are looking at this movie from your sofa with a bucket of popcorn and a few cans of beer chilling out – I think that is what an average Joe in the land of the free might do. In Limy land, where I live, it was a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich with brown sauce.

It is the not too distant future and America is happy being the land of the free playing their American football with a rugby ball and generally doing rummy enjoyable things. They think their enemy of today is North Korea, but secretly it is us Brits because we drove Piers Morgan out of the UK. He went to America and started poking his nose into American things and has supposedly got the second amendment scrapped. This has dire consequences because North Korea invades unexpectedly and America is caught with her trousers down. All the everyday citizens have to defend themselves with are a few Boy Scout penknives and a whistle.

The North Koreans drop from aeroplanes in parachutes into this small town and start setting up a serious of extremely inconvenient check point road blocks. This causes havoc with traffic coming in and out of the small mid-west American town. Evidently the North Koreans are doing this all over America – blooming road blocks everywhere. To top all this, they start arresting and interning ultra-good-looking people. A few of these escape into the forested hills where they form a resistance band of ultra-good-looking Americans called Wolverines. You have to be ultra-good-looking to be in the gang though because the North Koreans only seem to be interning ultra-good-looking Americans. They get put in orange suits and taken to enclosed football grounds. The resistance fighters get to sneak down to the perimeter of the town and look out at the flood lit stadium and watch fellow ultra-good-looking Americans as the wander around the ground aimlessly in their orange all in one suit.

Meanwhile the less glamorous Americans get to go about town and pass the inconvenient North Korean road blocks. You can sense that normal Americans must not happy with this because not many of them go out. I think those that do are like the hobo type characters you often see in American shows. The North Koreans probably think they are all snappy dressers but are not ultra-good-looking so pose no threat. However, it still made me think: “Where on earth are the ordinary Americans – the sort who like to sit in front of t.v. with popcorn and a six pack. Perhaps a fat bald headed one amid the crowd.” I know they are not allowed to be in the Wolverines due to a lack of ultra-good-looking clout but they had obviously found somewhere to hide and must be doing alright.

Back in the hills among the free ultra-good-looking Americans there are arguments between two brothers. One is a marine on leave who really knows how to kick bottom (arse – for Americans) His younger and more naive brother has this idea of wanting to rescue his girlfriend. She is in the internment camp wearing an all in one orange suit. By day these prisoners are put on big yellow school buses and driven through the town’s North Korean road blocks – presumably to be put in another stadium. The next day, I presume the get driven back to the original one. Well perhaps one is a football stadium and the other is for baseball. The North Koreans cunningly make use of both. The Big brother really fancies having a go at the road blocks because he has noticed the North Koreans seem to be really big on these check points but are not too keen on the surrounding wooded hills or the multi-story blocks along the streets overlooking these dynamic road blocks. They (North Koreans) are not exactly aggressively patrolling the areas looking for the ultra-good-looking Americans. This is a flaw in the plan that no ultra-good-looking wolverine is going to waste. There is a bit of disagreement between both brothers because the younger one wants to go for the compound and rescue his girlfriend with other ultra-good-looking American prisoners. They would make ideal wolverine recruits and then they could have a go at the road blocks. However, big brother is in charge so they attack the road block, check points first – killing nasty North Koreans like it was open season on Reds and helping themselves to commie tech weaponry that is inferior to the assault rifles and stuff they might have had if that bloody Piers Morgan had kept his Limy trap shut.

These attacks are cunningly executed as the wolverines go into the derelict multi story blocks with a tantalising choice of overlooking views of the North Korean check points. Others (wolverines) put their hoods up and wear scruffy hats and mingle with the dreary hobos that pass through the road blocks. Secretly I think the film director got them as a job lot from the set of Walking Dead, but hey - it works. When the action starts the nasty North Koreans are getting blown and shot all over the place. The mingling ultra-good-looking Americans pull down their hoods to revile fine chiselled features and dynamite white teeth that a limy like me can only dream of. They all sport that ‘Hey grab a load of me look.’ and the enemy are caught off guard which was their own stupid fault. The North Koreans plan a master stroke by allowing their bamboo republic to trick the foremost super power the world has ever known; then all they can do is loiter about at check points. What a blooming waste!

I enjoyed watching the Red bastards blown here there and everywhere – serves them right for marginalising ultra-good-looking people who know how to bite back and wear sporting, eye-catching, vogue, guerrilla warfare clobber at the same time. Don’t cross swords with the wolverines. (Don’t f~*k with the wolverines. If American)

During one of these battles; little brother of the ultra-good-looking wolverines, goes ape shit (Angry. If American) He sees the yellow school bus and attacks that instead of the check point. He needs a bit of variety and his drop dead gorgeous girlfriend is on board in her orange jump suit. You guessed it; they are they ultra- good-looking prisoners who got tangoed when they North Koreans first invaded. Young Bruv shoots up the driver and guard gets on board the yellow school bus and rescues his outrageously gorgeous bird (Girlfriend if American) As this mayhem goes on, they escape into the surrounding derelict buildings that the North Koreans neglect to occupy for some reason. They end up in a fashion shop run by a fat black lady who can’t be a wolverine on account of not being good looking enough. With a lack of good looking people her business has obviously plummeted because her trendy shop has no customers. You can tell she is so pleased to see them because the lady tells boy and girlfriend to take any flash clobber (trendy clothes if American) they want. Cunningly disguised they escape the North Koreans who are running about like headless chickens getting shot and blown up. Our two ultra-good-looking people tuck their chins down hiding their dynamic looks and walk past the confused enemy.

Two more wolverines escape into a Subway fast food place and it was in here that I finally realised where all the ordinary everyday Americans really were. The place was blooming packed with dinners – every table taken. You can’t blame them; outside seems very messy with loads of commotion between North Koreans and ultra-good-looking Americans. Who the bleeding hell needs all that crap when you can still feed your face with a subway sandwich. The fast food outlets are still going and it’s all a load of fuss over a few check point, road blocks really. I think the ultra-good-looking Americans have a point though – the North Koreans should f~#k off home and set up road block, check points in their own country. They don't have a clue how to police or fight ultra-good-looking Americans. The North Korean top dog wants his men to get out and at them and is blaming the chief prefect for incompetence. While all the feeble prefect can say is: "We need better Checkpoint Sir." These bad guys don't know if they want to go to the toilet or get a hair cut.

In short, a great over the top, outrageously entertaining bad movie, you must watch if you can chill and switch the brain into neutral for an hour and half. If you are one of these trendy left wingers and are bit up your own arse with delusions of dignity and intellect then don’t watch. Go to a cheese and wine party and talk atomic physics with the veggie squad. This movie does not promise the world. It never did, so watch and enjoy – even take the piss if you have a mind too. I would watch it again when it comes to TV – just for the crack. ( Crack = Laugh if American)

Mother Cat - Lilly's Little Kittens New to the World

Mother Cat Lilly with five little kittens just four hours old

Yesterday our little cat, Lilly became a mother of five little kittens. She is on the Retro Brit Blog from last year when we got her as a kitten. Now a year later she is a proud little mum purring away under the bed with five little bundles of fur and paws. Lilly is a small cat and we were very surprised that she had five kittens because even though they are very tiny and cute; the mind boggles at the thought of them being inside her little stomach. All five kittens and Mother Lilly seem to be doing very well.

Timeslip - Retro British Science Fiction Drama for Children 1970

I remember watching Timeslip as a nine-year-old kid in 1970. I would rush home from school always eager to see the next episode of Simon and Liz as the went through time barrier into future or past alternate worlds. I seem to recall one in a strange Ice Age future. 

At first, Simon, who looks like a young youth version of Rolf Harris, is a bit of a geek, while Liz is more adventurous and reckless. This causes arguments, but as the show and stories go on; Simon and Liz become much more confident in each other's abilities. The theme tune was rather haunting too and is very retro 1970s.

Timeslip was a British children's science fiction tv show which is often focused on scientific abuse and Eco damage of our world.

UK Retro Sci/Fi - Supernatural T.V. Series - Sapphire and Steel

There were six series of Sapphire and Steel and each series had a number of 25 minuet episodes. Each series never had a title, but fans have since added names of their own. The six series ran from 1979 to 1982 though I don’t think there was a showing in 1980 between the mentioned years.

Supernatural Beings Sapphire and Steel

Sapphire and Steel are strange cosmic beings that we do not know much about. They seem to be sentient elements that appear in human form when dispatched to restore order upon Earth. They are strange guardians who know that time is a corridor encircling all things in the known universe. At some points, of this corridor of time, there are weak spots that need to be sealed so that order and universal balance is maintained. There are creatures that live along the corridor constantly looking for weak spots to brake into the real universe and such weak spots can be created inadvertently by a nursery rhyme, a simple curse or a painting.

When these problems occur, Sapphire and Steel mysteriously appear much to everyone else’s surprise and suspicion. We do not know much about them and they retain this strange anonymity through out the different stories. Sapphire is beautiful and played by Joanna Lumley. Her character is very approachable and she often appears kind and sympathetic to the troubled humans caught up in the unearthly dilemmas. Steel is played by David McCallum and is much more aloof and irritated by the people he is forced to deal with. In reality, Sapphire and Steel will sacrifice anyone to amend a situation if it is necessary. They are on occasions forced to be indifferent to humans.

Steel has little patience for the amateur Ghost Hunter

Of all these stories, my favourite is series 2 (The Railway Station - called by Fans.) There is a breach in the time lines and we are presented with a derelict and long ago disused railway station. An eccentric middle aged man has his camp bed, flask, sandwiches and tape recorder. He is an amateur ghost hunter searching for lost spirits in the abandoned rail station. He gets more then he bargained for when Sapphire and Steel suddenly appear. The story is very good and Sapphire and Steel lock horns with a dark entity that feeds on resentment. The place is full of ghosts wandering the platform and flowers blooming in winter. The story is a peach and a must for anyone who enjoys British Retro Sci/fi or ghostly stories.  

Sapphire allows the dark entity to enter her being
so that it can communicate with Steel using her  form as an apparatus.

The presentation of the time beings is well done on a limited T.V. budget and the settings are always confined and isolated making it easy for the watcher to be drawn into the supernatural stories.

Have You Seen British Retro T.V. Series - Thriller

The British TV series called Thriller was on Saturday evenings from 1973 to 1976. I remember each week was a different type of story lasting about 60 minutes. The stories were set in England in the more affluent areas of society and usually involved a murder mystery with a strange twist. It was so popular that there were six series and it managed to attract an audience in the U.S.A. which is always a good sign for a lucrative future. This is why it was able to produce so many different plots. Because of the U.S. appeal the British producers began to employ at least one U.S. actor or actress to appeal to the American audience too.

Some of the stories were very gripping and my favourite was series 3 thriller episode called ‘I’m the Girl He Wants to Kill.’ In this story a young lady is perused by a serial murderer into an office block. The security guard is about to shut the office block down as all have gone home. However, our demented killer takes control and has his own lock in. His intended victim is a lady who is forced to play a deadly game of cat and mouse while the killer stalks and hunts her. It had me on the edge of my seat at the time, but I suppose it is very tame now.

A clip from: I'm the Girl he Wants to Kill - British TV series called Thriller

Over the six seasons, thriller enjoyed good t.v. ratings in UK and USA. In all there were around 43 episodes and even when viewed now; I can see how different Britain has become from the retro 70s decade.