Angus Macnab
John Angus Macnab (1906-1977) was a British fascist politician who was a close associate of William Joyce who later became noted as a writer on Medieval Spain and translator of Latin and Greek poetry.
Early life
Macnab was born in London, of New Zealand–Scots parents. The son of a well-known Harley Street eye doctor, MacNab was educated at Rugby School and the Christ Church, Oxford.[1] A convert to the Roman Catholic Church[2], he was also noted as a mountaineer.[3] A gifted translator, when he graduated, he chose teaching as his profession.
Spain
At the time of the Spanish Civil War he served as an ambulance driver. It was during this period when he learned Spanish and became interested in Spain’s history.
Political involvement
In the 1930s Macnab shared a flat in London with William Joyce and the two built up a life-long friendship that was to determine his political involvement.[4] Macnab joined the British Union of Fascists and served as an official in the BUF's Propaganda Department as well as editing the party journal Fascist Quarterly.[5] He authored a satirical anti-Jewish column called ‘Jolly Judah’.[6]
As a loyal lieutenant to Joyce he complained directly to Oswald Mosley about Joyce's dismissal from the BUF in 1937 and was himself forcibly removed from the group as a result.[7] Indeed, such was the bad feeling between Mosley and Joyce that the BUF leader threatened to physically attack Macnab for his complaints and ultimately had him ejected by his Blackshirts.[8]
Following this incident Macnab joined Joyce and John Beckett in forming the National Socialist League. The group made little headway and he travelled with Joyce to Belgium just before the war where they met with German agent Chrisitian Bauer.[9] Macnab joined Joyce and Bauer, a journalist with Der Angriff, in travelling to Berlin immediately afterwards.[10] However whilst Joyce remained in Germany Macnab returned to the UK immediately after the outbreak of war, claiming that he would not be involved in aiding Britain's enemies.[9]
During the Second World War he was detained May 23, 1940 under Defence Regulation 18B and released in 1943.[11] He was the first one to identify Joyce as 'Lord Haw Haw' (the radio broadcaster's identity initially being a mystery) when his old university colleague the Marquess of Donegall, who was a journalist with the Daily Mail at the time, had Macnab listen to some recordings after he suspected that Joyce, rather than the other leading suspect John Amery, might be behind the broadcasts.[12] Macnab remained loyal to Joyce after his capture and he joined Joyce's brother Quentin in a failed attempt to appeal the death sentence passed on 'Lord Haw-Haw'.[11]
MacNab married Catherine Collins, a former BUF activist, in 1945 and after the war the couple settled in Toledo, Spain.[13] They had four children in Spain and Macnab made a living by teaching and translating English and as well as writing.[13] For much of the remainder of his life he maintained correspondence with A. K. Chesterton although he took no further role in active politics.[14]
Works
- Spain Under the Crescent Moon
- Toledo, Sacred and Profane
References
- ↑ M. Kenny, Germany Calling - A Personal Biography of William Joyce, Dublin: New Island Books, 2003, p. 64
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, p. 64
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, p. 127
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, p. 130
- ↑ S. Dorrill, Blackshirt – Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism, London: Penguin, 2007, p. 413
- ↑ British fascism, 1918-39: parties, ideology and culture, By Thomas P. Linehan, page 138
- ↑ Dorrill, op cit, p. 413
- ↑ F. Beckett, The Rebel Who Lost His Cause, London, 1999, p. 146
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Dorrill, op cit, p. 464
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, p. 155
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Kenny, op cit, p. 286
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, pp. 181-2
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kenny, op cit, p. 314
- ↑ Kenny, op cit, p. 315
