John Tyndall (politician)

John Tyndall
John Tyndall addressing a Nationalist Alliance meeting in 2005
Chairman of the British National Party
In office 1982 – September 1999
Deputy	Richard Edmonds
Succeeded by	Nick Griffin
Chairman of the National Front
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
Personal details
Born	(1934-07-14)July 14, 1934 Exeter, Devon, England
Died	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 - Marina Tyndall

John Hutchyns Tyndall (July 14, 1934 – July 19, 2005) was a British white nationalist politician. As a prominent figure in British nationalism in the second-half of the twentieth century, Tyndall was involved during the 1960s with National Socialist and British fascist movements, most notably being the deputy leader of the National Socialist Movement under Colin Jordan. However, he is best known for leading the National Front (NF) in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party (BNP) in 1982.

Early life

Main article: Tyndall

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 as land owners to assist in controlling the native Irish population on behalf of the monarch.

Political career

Early politics

Tyndall developed a strong dislike of the political process during his youth. In his teenage years he developed an interest in socialism and began to study it vigorously. However, he described himself as insufficiently convinced on it enough to join any socialist organisation and began to regard left-wing politics as anti-patriotic and anti-nationalist.

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 the NLP merged with the White Defence League of Colin Jordan to form the old British National Party (BNP) which was led by John Bean.

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 set up as the NSM's embryonic security corps, modelled on the SA of National Socialist Germany. In 1962, the police prosecuted Jordan, Tyndall, Denis Pirie and Kerr-Ritchie for paramilitary organising. All four were imprisoned for several months after having been found guilty of breaching the Public Order Act, 1936.

In 1963, Tyndall fell out with Jordan over Françoise Dior, the French heiress, who, though she was originally engaged to Tyndall, hastily married Jordan, who had been released from prison before Tyndall, to avoid being expelled from Britain as an undesirable alien. This caused a certain cooling of relations between the two former allies, although in 2009 - by which point both were deceased - Tyndall's widow Valerie was reported to have claimed that Tyndall and Jordan were eventually reconciled, an assertion which is supported by Jordan's account of a meeting between Tyndall and Jordan himself, in 1968, as reported in Martin Walker's book The National Front (p. 77).

In 1964, Tyndall set up his personal magazine, using the name Spearhead, which ran until just after 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 on good personal terms 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 occupying 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 Authoritarian State: Its Meaning and Function in 1961, in which he claimed that liberal democracy was a Jewish tool of world domination that needed to be replaced by authoritarianism. It was around this time when he read Hitler's autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, which he described as "not the words of a madman or psychopath but those of a seer or prophet". He approved in particular of "the descriptions of the workings of certain Jewish forces in Germany, which seemed uncannily similar to what I had observed of the same kinds of forces in Britain." He concluded that Britain's decision to go to war against National Socialist Germany was ultimately the result of a conspiracy headed primarily by Jews, a conspiracy which also masterminded non-white immigration from the Third World into Britain after the war.

Later, Tyndall continued to develop his ideological programme and in 1966 published the book Six Principles of British Nationalism which appeared to break with the 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. Tyndall’s new work impressed A. K. Chesterton, who co-operated with Tyndall in engineering a re-alignment of nationalism.

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. On the secession of John O'Brien and his supporters, in 1972, Tyndall assumed the chairmanship, in which his principal metier was ideology and strategy. Tyndall was also a talented orator, in the Mosley tradition.

Under Tyndall's guidance the Front grew in membership and received votes, peaking during the local elections of 1977. 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 breakaway National Party in 1976. After this split Tyndall was able to regain the Chair and re-establish his control of the NF. Tyndall promoted a British pan-nationalist 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 every deposit. 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 often resisted any attempts to soften the party's policies or image. However, the crucial change from a policy of compulsory, to one of voluntary repatriation, was accomplished while Tyndall was still leader. Tyndall was convicted of publishing material likely to incite racial hated in 1986 and was jailed. During his time in prison, he wrote his political philosophy book entitled The Eleventh Hour: A Call for British Rebirth, which he subsequently revised several times.

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. Griffin expelled Tyndall twice, on the first occasion, in 2003, with his close ally John Morse. Tyndall was reinstated after a court case. In December 2004 Tyndall was expelled from the BNP a second time, having announced in Spearhead of August 2004 his intention to mount a challenge to Griffin's leadership in 2005.

Tyndall attacked Griffin's policies in Spearhead, such as when Griffin publicly declared that an all-white Britain was no longer possible, Tyndall declared this to be "a betrayal of BNP activists and a repudiation of everything they have fought for over the past 19 years", adding that "a whites-only Britain is indeed possible — through a BNP victory. And without such a victory not even any limited relief from the present multi racial horror will ever be possible." Tyndall attacked Griffin's policy of allowing the BNP to have Jewish candidates. It has been argued that, during Griffin's leadership, the BNP started drifting away from its original Third Position ideology and adopted more of an alt-right stance.

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 of Michael Howard's Jewish background 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 on July 21, 2005.

Policies and views

Tyndall considered himself both a British nationalist and a white nationalist. He argued that non-whites were unassimilable to Britain and that those living in Britain should be repatriated. He advocated an "an-all White Britain". He spoke positively of white immigrants from Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states, regarding them as being racially similar and sharing the "same basic culture" as the British and were thus easily able to assimilate "within a generation or two".

Tyndall strongly objected to miscegenation and remarked: "I feel deeply sorry for the child of a mixed marriage, but I can have no sympathy whatever for the parents... They produced an offspring that will never wholly fit, and will undoubtedly face a life much harder than the normal person born of pure race." Tyndall believed that Jews were behind multiracial Britain, he remarked: "My experience as a campaigner against the multi-racial idea in Britain and in favour of our country's centuries-old tradition of racial homogeneity has brought home to me beyond any doubt the fact that Jews are to be found at the forfront of opposition to British racial self-preservation." He objected to homosexuality and advocated for it to be outlawed.

Tyndall wrote in his book The Eleventh Hour that his earlier involvement during the 1960s with openly pro-National Socialist movements was a mistake, he remarked: "having made a thorough study of the forces dedicated to destroying my own country, and knowing that Hitler faced very similar forces in his, I have come to believe that many of his intentions were good ones and many of his achievements admirable. But that does not mean that it is right for a British movement belonging to an entirely different phase of history to model itself on the movement of Hitler... We are a different country, with our own proud past and traditions, and these — not the traditions of foreigners — should be our source of inspiration". During an interview in 1974, he remarked that many of his views had changed from then, although some had still remained the same.

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 (against Edward Heath in his last election) 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. Valerie died on 24 June 2011 in Hove.

Elections contested by John Tyndall

UK Parliament elections

Date of election	Constituency	Party	Votes	%
1979 general election	Hackney, S & Shoreditch	NF	1,958	7.6
1992 general election	Bow and Poplar	BNP	1,107	3.0
9 June 1994 by-election	Dagenham	BNP	1,511	7.0
1997 general election	Poplar and Canning Town	BNP	2,849	7.3
2001 general election	Mitcham and Morden	BNP	642	1.7

European Parliament elections

Year	Region	Party	Votes	%	Results	Notes
1999	London	BNP	17,960	1.6	Not elected	Multi member constituencies; party list

Elections contested by Valerie Tyndall

UK Parliament elections

Date of election	Constituency	Party	Votes	%
1979 general election	Brighton Kemptown	NF	404	0.9
1983 general election	Hackney, S & Shoreditch	BNP	374	1.0
1997 general election	Old Bexley and Sidcup	BNP	415	0.8

European Parliament elections

Year	Region	Party	Votes	%	Results	Notes
1999	London	BNP	17,960	1.6	Not elected	Multi member constituencies; party list

Books

Year	Title	Notes
1961	Authoritarian State: Its Meaning and Function	National Socialist Movement. Reprinted by Westropa Social Alliance Press in 1973, OCLC 43505111
1966	Six Principles of British Nationalism	2nd edition printed in 1970. Reprinted by The A.K. Chesterton Trust in 2013, ISBN 0-95646-697-4
1971	Death in the Lebanon	London: G. Bles, ISBN 0-71380-291-X
1975	The Case for Economic Nationalism	Croydon: National Front Policy Committee, ISBN 0-90510-900-7
1988	The Eleventh Hour: A Call for British Rebirth	London: Albion Press, ISBN 0-95136-861-3. Reprinted in Welling in 1998, ISBN 0-95136-860-5

External links

• John Tyndall, excerpts from EURO Intl. Conference 2004 -I/II on YouTube
• John Tyndall, excerpts from EURO Intl. Conference 2004 -Ii/II on YouTube
• Recent BNP arrests BBC report 14 December 2004
• "BNP men bailed in race case" The Guardian, 8 April 2005
• The Guardian Obituary of John Tyndall, 19 July 2005
• The Guardian "A racist, violent neo-nazi to the end: BNP founder Tyndall dies", 20 July 2005
• BNP News "Obituary: JohnTyndall 14/7/1934 – 18/7/2005" at the Wayback Machine (archived November 22, 2005) 19 July 2005
• Information on Tyndall from the Anti-Nazi League at the Wayback Machine (archived October 9, 2001)
• "The Creed of a Nationalist" at the Wayback Machine (archived April 14, 2010)
• "Six Principles of Nationalism"
• "Spearhead"
• Fight Back! 1992 Manifesto of the British National Party
• 1997 Manifesto of the British National Party at the Wayback Machine (archived June 18, 2000)
• Economic Nationalism or the global economy? audiotape

Party political offices
New creation	Chairman of the British National Party 1982–1999	Succeeded by Nick Griffin