Racial Preservation Society
The Racial Preservation Society was a far-right pressure group opposed to immigration and in favour of white nationalism, national preservation and protection in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Background Although parties such as the Union Movement, the British National Party and the National Socialist Movement organised at the time, much of the opposition to immigration in Britain during the early 1960s was locally based, centering on groups such as the Southall Residents Association and the Birmingham Immigration Control Association, groups that sought to influence local policy makers within the Conservative and Labour parties. Attempts were made to co-ordinate the work of like-minded groups across Britain, although many of these initiatives, such as Tom Finney's English Rights Association or Tom Jones' Argus British Rights Association did not have the organisational basis required to forge any meaningful unity. It was against this backdrop that the RPS first emerged. Formation The first arm of the RPS was founded in Brighton in 1965 by Robin Beauclaire and Jimmy Doyle. With this group covering the South, a second group was established, covering the Midlands and utilising the existing structure of the Argus British Rights Association. Ray Bamford, the chaplain to the BNP's youth movement and a well-known writer on racial issues for far-right magazines in both Britain and Germany, was chosen to link the two groups as vice-chairman of each. A veteran of the Scottish Conservative Party and a member of a variety of right-wing clubs and societies, Bamford was prized for his organisational capabilities and his list of contacts. Acting as a co-ordinating body for local groups, whilst allowing its affiliates some degree of independence, the RPS, backed by Bamford's wealth, produced copious amounts of anti-immigration newsletters, ranging from the RPS News to regional titles such as the Sussex News and Midlands News. A number of its leading members, including Doyle, Ted Budden and Alan Hancock, shared a background as members of the British Union of Fascists before the Second World War. Activities The movement functioned as a propaganda group without branching into politics (although individual members were free to join political parties) and provided extensive lists of conspiratorial books and pamphlets for sale. Of these the most extreme was Colin Jordan's Fraudulent Conspiracy, a work dealing with supposed conspiracy to control the world between international finance and Judaism. As well as publishing a number of books and pamphlets, the RPS also produced a regular newspaper, The Southern News, generally filled with horror stories about immigrants. The group accepted all types of members if they agreed on restricting immigration: thus, members of the Conservative Party were amongst early RPS activists before the group's true aims were clear. The RPS itself was never a political party and never attempted to organise as one. Merger attempts A growing force, the RPS was approached by John Tyndall in early 1966, with a request that it should merge with his Greater Britain Movement and the BNP. The request was immediately rejected by the RPS, as the group