Horatio Bottomley and the Far Right Before Fascism (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)

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When our men go into the great university of life…there are few, indeed, who have practical reason to regret that so many years were spent in the severe but salutary discipline imposed by the University of Dublin." ~ The Dublin University Magazine (April 1858), p. 419. Searle, Geoffrey R. (2004). A New England? Peace and War 1886–1918. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928440-5. Bottomley spent five years in an orphanage before beginning his career, aged 14, as an errand boy. Subsequent experience as a solicitor's clerk gave him a useful knowledge of English law, which he later put to effective use in his court appearances. After working as a shorthand writer and court reporter, at 24 he founded his own publishing company, which launched numerous magazines and papers, including, in 1888, the Financial Times. [1] He overreached with an ambitious public flotation of his company, which led to his first arraignment on fraud charges in 1893. Despite evidence of malpractice, Bottomley, who defended himself, was acquitted. He subsequently amassed a fortune as a promoter of shares in gold-mining companies.

John Stonehouse, the Labour MP for Walsall South, was expelled in August 1976 after a parliamentary career that started with ambitions to be prime minister and ended with him faking his own death. In the early 1970s Stonehouse, who had previously held several ministerial posts, had severe business problems and fled to Australia on a dead constituent's passport via Miami where he left his clothes on a beach, faking his own suicide. The police caught up with him on Christmas Eve in 1975 and he was sent to Brixton prison, where he continued to serve as an MP. He eventually resigned in August, but not before he had resigned the Labour party whip, costing his party – which had up to then failed to expel him – its majority in the Commons. Bottomley's obituaries dwelt on the common theme of wasted talent: a man of brilliant natural abilities, destroyed by greed and vanity. "He had personal magnetism, eloquence, and the power to convince", wrote his Daily Mail obituarist. "He might have been a leader at the Bar, a captain of industry, a great journalist. He might have been almost anything". [147] The Straits Times of Singapore thought that Bottomley could have rivalled Lloyd George as a national leader: "Though he deserved his fate, the news of his passing will awaken the many regrets for the good which he did when he was Bottomley the reformer and crusader and the champion of the bottom dog". [148] A later historian, Maurice Cowling, pays tribute to Bottomley's capacity and industry, and to his forceful campaigns in support of liberty. [108] In his sketch for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Morris delivers a different judgement: "[H]e claimed to serve the interests of others, but sought only his own gratification". [2]

The hugely influential newspaper editor, politician, orator and crook had a remarkable journey from poverty to Westminster and back — he was well ahead of his time, writes STEPHEN ARNELL

So even political nerds may be surprised to learn that there are 15 MPs apparently sitting as independents in the House of Commons – the same total of MPs as the Liberal Democrats. Until last week, indeed, there were 16 of these so-called independents, before Margaret Ferrier was ousted by the recall petition in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. Bottomley regarded himself as a valuable recruiter for the British army and asked the prime minister at the time, H. H. Asquith, for a government position, to which Asquith replied, with a feline kind of double entendre, that he thought Bottomley would be of greater value outside the government.

Ruth Dudley Edwards (2013). Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street. Random House. pp.131–2. ISBN 978-1-4464-8563-7. Faced with the history of these great patriotic assemblies which constitute the glory of Bottomley’s life, it would be unfair to dwell too long on the two major consequences of his performances. First, the star turn (Bottomley) made money in abundance for himself and for no-one else. Second, where he did persuade men to volunteer, Bottomley manfully contributed to a war in which more than 16 million people were killed. In every city in Britain, there were people who volunteered at his urging and returned from the war invalided for life, if they returned at all. That Sir George Makgill was active within this complex network of inter-related organisations is however beyond doubt. In the London telephone directory for 1917 he is listed as the Honourary Secretary of the British Empire Union based at 346 Strand Walk (the office of the Diehard newspaper "The Morning Post"). In 1918 the "business secretary" of the British Empire Union was listed as Reginald Wilson, who was later associated with National Propaganda, and its successor the Economic League. Makgill was also, in the same years, the General Secretary of the British Empire Producers' Organisation, which had certainly been courted by the BCU as a potential sponsor, as early as 1917. A further link with this Diehard, anti-socialist network around National Propaganda, is suggested by an entry in The Times on December 17th 1920, in which it was announced the Makgill was standing as a candidate for Horatio Bottomley's People's League in a Parliamentary election in East Leyton. Bottomley was a jingoistic, right wing populist closely associated with the diehards. His group was one of the more successful "patriotic labour" movements which sprang up after the extension of the franchise to attract and encourage anti-socialist working class votes. (8) Henry J. Houston, The Real Horatio Bottomley (1923)Mr Bottomley Expelled the House". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Hansard online. 1 August 1922. pp.col. 1285–88. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 2 July 2016.

The 1946 relaunch featured covers that encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain's finest illustrators. During this period, the magazine also included short stories by major British authors such as H. E. Bates, Agatha Christie, Nicholas Monsarrat, N. J. Crisp, Gerald Kersh, J. B. Priestley and C. S. Forester. Bottomley was far from crushed: he was more like a cork that bobs up after being pushed for a moment under the water. While still a Member of Parliament, he had begun to publish a wildly patriotic, not to say xenophobic, weekly journal called John Bull that soon had a circulation of half a million, and for which he was the leading writer. He had become by far the most famous journalist in the country.It will thus be seen that the war provided H.B. with an excellent source of revenue. The expenditure of nervous and physical energy involved in the lecture tour was enormous. Every night when I got him away from a meeting to the hotel I had to strip him and give him a thorough towelling. He was invariably saturated right through to his morning coat with perspiration. Purdue, A. W. (15 November 2012). " Book review: Patriotism and Propaganda in First World War Britain: The National War Aims Committee and Civilian Morale". The Times Higher Education Supplement. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014 . Retrieved 2 July 2016. Recognising the signs, a former partner of his from his old lotteries referred to the Victory Bonds Club as “Horatio Bottomley’s latest swindle”. Horatio foolishly sued the man and lost, which led inevitably to an investigation and his own trial for fraud. After having dodged prosecution so often, Horatio might have expected this to be another chance to show off in court and walk out a free time. However, there was at least one major difference this time. Horatio had developed a serious drinking problem – bad enough that he actually had to negotiate a fifteen minute break each day to allow him to drink a pint of champagne and stave off withdrawal. As a result, though the prosecutor was far more adept than any of his previous opponents he later commented: “It was not I that floored him, but drink”. A court drawing of Horatio being sentenced. Bottomley arrived in Brighton in 1875 where he found work work at a jeweller's shop. He lived in a small garret bedroom over a chandler's shop at 3, Little East Street. During this period he was also a member of the local debating society. Bottomley eventually returned to London and in 1877 he found employment as an office boy in an ironworks in Euston Road and lodged with a widow in Battersea. He enrolled at Pitman's College and in 1879 joined a firm of legal shorthand writers, in Holywell Street. Australian Press Association (19 February 1930). "Second marriage. Horatio Bottomley's daughter". The Brisbane Courier. p.10.