Jane Birdwood

Infobox Person
name = The Dowager Lady Birdwood

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image_size = 150px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1913|5|18|mf=y
birth_place = Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
death_date = death date and age|2000|6|28|1913|5|18|mf=y
death_place = England
occupation = Politician, activist, publisher
spouse = Lord Birdwood
parents =
children =

Jane Birdwood, Baroness Birdwood (May 18 1913-June 28 2000) was the wife of Lord Birdwood and a leading figure on the far right in the United Kingdom who took part in a number of movements.

Early life

She was born Joan Pollock Graham in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, after which she changed her name to Jane in order to avoid confusion with a popular radio actress of the time. She later became the second wife of Lieutenant Colonel The Hon. Christopher Birdwood (the son of Field Marshal William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood) and thus became Lady Birdwood in 1954 on the death of her husband's father.Nick Lowles, ' [http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/index.php?link=template&story=80 A very English extremist] ', "Searchlight"]

Political Activities

Initially serving only as a worker for her husband's passion international aid, she began to expand her political horizons after she was widowed in 1962. She first emerged as an activist in the League for European Freedom, an anti-communist group that sought to aid refugees from Eastern Europe. Her activities also brought her into contact with such groups as the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and individuals such as Yaroslav Stetsko.

Around the same time, she also became involved in campaigns to support to public decency, and was briefly associated with Mary Whitehouse. In this role, she attempted to launch a number of prosecutions against productions and writers that offended her sense of taste, including the makers of controversial nude revue "Oh! Calcutta!" and John Bird, the author of the play "Council of Love".

Birdwood then became involved in campaigns against trade unions, setting up the Citizens Mutual Protection Society in the early 1970s, which launched a failed attempt to run a private postal service. She then became involved in leading a number of far right pressure groups, including the Immigration Control Association, Common Cause, the British League of Rights (of which she was General Secretary) and Self Help, the latter attempting, unsuccessfully, to charge Arthur Scargill with treason. [Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 29th June 2000, accessed at [http://www.focal.org/online/DTel/290600.html David Irving's website on 25th August 2007]

Birdwood flirted with a number of political parties during her life, including briefly leading her own, British Solidarity. A member of the Conservative Party, she was active in Geoffrey Stewart-Smith's Foreign Affairs Circle but left the Tories along with a number of followers of George Kennedy Young in the mid 1970s. Following this departure she became associated with the British National Front for a short spell. She also worked with Ross McWhirter at this time on his right wing magazine "Majority", and became a vocal critic of the Provisional Irish Republican Army after his murder. She also devoted a lot of time to the World Anti-Communist League.

She stood in the 1983 by-election in Bermondsey as an independent candidate, winning 69 votes, and attacked her opponents by labelling the Tory candidate a 'multiracialist' and the NF candidate a 'socialist'. She was equally unsuccessful when she stood as a British National Party candidate in the 1992 general election in Dewsbury. Through much of her later life, she published the journal "Choice", which presented a right wing stance but was generally independent of any political party. [http://library-2.lse.ac.uk/archives/handlists/ChoiceLeaf/ChoiceLeaf.html Details of collection held in British Library] ]

Accusations

In 1991, she was brought to trial at the Old Bailey for ten counts of breaching the Public Order Act 1986. She was given a three-month suspended sentence and a £500 fine after being found guilty of all charges (which related to the distribution of antisemitic material). She was brought to trial for similar offences in 1994 and 1998, although the last one was suspended on health grounds. Her lawyer for these trials was usually Doug Christie, a Canadian lawyer best known for defending individuals accused of Nazi war crimes or racist, antisemitic or neo-Nazi activity. [ [http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=320&Itemid=33 Doug Christie] , One People's Project profile]

Birdwood continued to lead British Solidarity as a pressure group, publish "Choice" and run a publishing venture, Inter City Researchers, until late 1999 when she was forced to stand down for health reasons. After her retirement most of these concerns passed into the hands of her associates Martin Webster and Peter Marriner, a former NF and British Movement activist.

Elections contested

References