A. K. Chesterton
Arthur Kenneth Chesterton (1 May 1899 – 16 August 1973) was a British far-right journalist and political activist. From 1933 to 1938, he was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Disillusioned with Oswald Mosley, he left the BUF in 1938. Chesterton established the League of Empire Loyalists in 1954, which merged with a short-lived British National Party in 1967 to become the National Front. He founded and edited the magazine Candour in 1954 as the successor of Truth, of which he had been co-editor. Biography Early life and education Arthur Kenneth Chesterton was born on 1 May 1899 in Krugersdorp, South African Republic, the son of Arthur George Chesterton (1871–1900), a secretary at the local gold mine, and Harriet Ethel Chesterton (née Down). He was the first cousin once removed of the author and poet G. K. Chesterton and the journalist Cecil Chesterton, his paternal grandfather being an older brother of G. K. and Cecil's father Edward. The young A. K. held his two cousins in high regard, seeing Cecil as his "exemplar". Just after the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, Chesterton and his mother were sent to England. His father later died of pneumonia at 28 on his journey to join the family. In May 1902, after the end of the conflict, Chesterton returned to Krugersdorp with his paternal uncle and his mother. His mother soon married a Scottish mine administrator named George Horne, and the reconstituted family settled in Witwatersrand, near Johannesburg. In 1911, aged 12, Chesterton was sent again to England to live with his paternal grandfather in Herne Hill. He attended Dulwich College and Berkhamsted School, Hertfordshire, where he was a schoolmate of Ben Greene and Rex Tremlett. World War I In October 1915, Chesterton's mother and step-father visited him in England, and he persuaded them to bring him back to South Africa. Shortly after disembarking, Chesterton decided to join the army, but too young to enlist at 16, he falsified his age to enroll in the 5th South African Light Infantry in German East Africa. In his memoirs, Chesterton alluded to two battles against the Germans at Salaita Hill on 12 February 1916, and at Latema Nek on 11–12 March 1916. During a march in 1916, Chesterton collapsed from fever and was left on the roadside to die. He was eventually rescued by two African porters and sent home to his family in Johannesburg. After a period of convalescence, then aged 17, Chesterton decided to join the army again and went to Ireland to train as an officer with a cadet battalion. In August 1918, he received his commission as second lieutenant and was transferred to the 2/2 Battalion, City of London Regiment, Royal Fusiliers. Chesterton served over two years on the Western Front. At the end of the war, he was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the battle of Épehy on 18–19 September 1918. Chesterton was at the head of a platoon reinforcing an