John Tyndall
John Tyndall was a prominent figure in British far-right politics, known for his controversial and often extremist views. Born in South London in 1934, he had a diverse familial background, with ties to both law enforcement in Ireland and notable historical figures, including the translator William Tyndale. Tyndall's political journey began with the League of Empire Loyalists before he founded the National Labour Party and later merged it with the White Defence League to create the British National Party (BNP). He was known for his aggressive oratory and active involvement in paramilitary activities, including his leadership role in the National Front (NF), where he adopted a violent approach to political activism.
Throughout his career, Tyndall faced legal challenges, including imprisonment for inciting racial hatred and organizing a paramilitary force. Despite these setbacks, he remained influential within far-right circles and continued to promote his views until his death from a heart attack in 2005. Tyndall's legacy is marked by his ability to galvanize support among certain groups, although his adherence to Nazi ideology and confrontational tactics ultimately hindered the broader acceptance of his party's platform.
Subject Terms
John Tyndall
British neo-Nazi politician and founder of the British National Union
- Born: July 14, 1934
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: July 19, 2005
- Place of death: Hove, Sussex, England
Major offenses: Organizing a paramilitary force and inciting racial hatred
Active: 1957-2005
Locale: Burnley, Lancashire, England
Sentence: Several months’ imprisonment for organizing a paramilitary force; one year in prison for inciting racial hatred
Early Life
John Hutchyns Tyndall (TIHN-duhl) was born the son of a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) warden in south London. His father’s side of the family had come from Ireland, where his grandfather had been an inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary and was active in fighting the Catholic rebels in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Before him, an ancestor had been a well-known Victorian scientist, and another, the famous William Tyndale, in the sixteenth century was the first translator of the English Bible.
After an undistinguished school career at Penge and Beckenham Grammar School, Tyndall served two years with the Royal Horse Artillery. He then spent a little time as a salesman. His first interest in politics was shown when he attended a Communist youth rally in Moscow in the mid-1950’s, but he quickly swung to the other extreme and spent the rest of his life involved in far-right activist politics.
Political Career
Tyndall first joined the League of Empire Loyalists (LEL), led by the far-right Arthur Kenneth Chesterton. Through the league, Tyndall met John Bean, one of Chesterton’s disciples, while campaigning in a London by-election in 1957. The two men developed an interest in direct action and were once arrested outside the house of a Conservative member of Parliament with a paint can and brushes. Tyndall did not think the LEL was active enough, so he formed his own party, the National Labour Party. However, the official Labour Party banned the use of its name. Tyndall then merged his party with the White Defence League in 1960 to form the British National Party (BNP), a party that was to have several different manifestations. Tyndall became its deputy national organizer.
Tyndall’s violent, neo-Nazi oratory frequently resulted in direct clashes with left-wing groups. When, in 1962, British socialist Colin Jordan set up a private army called Spearhead—based on Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirts (Hitler’s storm troopers, who wore brown uniforms)—Tyndall became its deputy commander. He was jailed for several months for organizing a paramilitary force, along with Jordan. Tyndall split with Jordan when Jordan suddenly married Tyndall’s fiancé, Françoise Dior.
It was in prison that Tyndall formulated his own political theories, which he published as The Authoritarian State. In this twenty-three-page pamphlet, he states his contempt for all democratic procedures, even within his own party. His views had a platform in the magazine he edited for many years, also called Spearhead. In the 1970’s, he married a co-activist and had one daughter with her.
After severing his ties with the old BNP, Tyndall set up his own National Socialist movement and then founded the Greater Britain movement in 1964. In 1966, he was again arrested, this time for carrying a gun and bullets. In 1967, the disparate group of far-right organizations were brought together as the National Front (NF) under Chesterton’s leadership. When Chesterton resigned, Tyndall assumed leadership. Tyndall came to power during a period when many working-class and lower-middle-class British citizens felt alienated by the Conservative Party’s acceptance of large-scale immigration. However, they were also alienated by Tyndall’s preferred method of violent street fighting and general thuggishness, as well as his obvious adherence to Nazi ideology, and therefore, the NF failed to make inroads into this collective dissatisfaction. In 1979, the year prime minister Margaret Thatcher came to power, NF candidates lost their deposits in every one of the 303 constituencies in which they contested.
Internal dissent again fractured the NF, and Tyndall left to form a new NF party, again named the British National Party, in 1982. In 1986, he was jailed for a year for inciting racial hatred. He stood as a BNP candidate in the 1994, 1997, and 2001 elections but never received many votes. In 1996, he met a young Cambridge graduate, Nick Griffin, and offered him the editorship of Spearhead. In the 1999 leadership election, he lost to Griffin—whom he criticized for his more democratic leanings—and was expelled. Reinstated, he was expelled a second time and forbidden to participate in local elections.
Legal Action and Outcome
By the turn of the twenty-first century, Tyndall had been arrested and charged three times. The laws against racial incitement in Britain had been strengthened, but Tyndall continued to disregard them in the name of freedom of speech. In 2003, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) undercover investigative reporter infiltrated the BNP in Lancashire, where the party had a strong following. He taped a number of party members, including Griffin and Tyndall, making very explicit racist remarks and boasting of racist attacks. When the show, titled The Secret Agent, was shown on BBC-TV in 2004, the police decided to act against the men. Tyndall was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and formally charged on April 6, 2005. The trial was due to have its first hearing at Leeds Crown Court on July 21, 2005. Two days before that date, however, Tyndall died of a heart attack at his house in Sussex.
Impact
John Tyndall’s main impact was not in his offenses but in his oratory, which could be mesmerizing, and in his organizational energy, which perpetuated the momentum of the far-right movement even in its periods of greatest disillusion and fracture. He was personally very courageous, but his adherence to Nazi ideology, his penchant for uniforms and jackboots, and his arrogance caused him to lose friends and, in the end, to become a hindrance to the BNP.
Bibliography
Copsey, Nigel. Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Search for Legitimacy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. This discussion sets Tyndall in the wider context of the growth of far-right parties.
Sykes, Alan. The Radical Right in Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. A volume in the British History in Perspective series, this title covers the rise of extreme conservatism in twentieth century Britain.
Tyndall, John. Eleventh Hour: A Call for British Rebirth. London: Albion Press, 1988. A long, rambling work, part autobiography, part political philosophy. A classic National Front text.