Raymond Hill (2 December 1939 – 14 May 2022) was a former leading figure in the British far right who went on to become a well-known informant. A sometime deputy leader of the
British Movement
The British Movement (BM), later called the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM), is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), which was founded in 1962. Frequentl ...
and a founder member of the
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
, Hill also secretly worked for ''
Searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
'' in feeding information about the groups' activities.
Early years
Born in
Mossley
Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester.
The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...
, Lancashire, Hill was educated at the local
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
primary school and at Stamford Secondary School in
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...
. He spent three years in the army in the 1950's. Ray moved to Leicester in 1965 where he met Glennis and they were married in June 1966. Their first daughter Suzanne Marion was born a year later in July 1967.
British Movement
Hill made his first steps in the far right in the latter 1960s with a local group called the Anti-Immigration Society (AIMS), promptly switching to the larger
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 Movem ...
to which AIMS was closely linked. From there he met
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan (19 June 1923 – 9 April 2009) was a leading figure in post-war neo-Nazism in Great Britain. In the far-right circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly "Nazi" inclination in his open use of the st ...
and soon became a member of the
British Movement
The British Movement (BM), later called the British National Socialist Movement (BNSM), is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), which was founded in 1962. Frequentl ...
, being appointed Organiser for Leicester in 1968 as well as Jordan's election agent for his campaign in the
1969 Birmingham Ladywood by-election. Although his wife largely tolerated his political involvement, Hill's arrest for actual bodily harm in late 1969 led to his disengagement and the couple deciding to emigrate.
South Africa
Hill emigrated to South Africa the following year, and became disabused of his former views after becoming friendly with members of South Africa's Jewish community. He was asked by a friend to infiltrate the
South African National Front, an organisation for ex-pat whites, eventually rising to the chairmanship as well as undertaking a series of speaking engagements for the
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
Herstigte Nasionale Party
The Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party) is a List of political parties in South Africa, South African political party which was formed as a Far-right politics, far-right splinter group of the now defunct National Party (So ...
(a radical breakaway from the ruling
National Party).
Return to Britain
Hill returned to Leicester in 1980 where he became associated with
Anthony Reed Herbert
Anthony Reed Herbert was a leading member of the British National Front (NF) during the 1970s, organising the party in Leicester and serving as its chief legal adviser (he was a solicitor by profession).
Reed Herbert attended Rugby School. One o ...
, initially in the
National Front, then in the
British Democratic Party
The British Democratic Party (BDP) was a short-lived far-right political party in the United Kingdom. A breakaway group from the National Front, the BDP was severely damaged after it became involved in a gun-running sting and was absorbed by the ...
. Hill did not actually join either group; instead, he renewed his membership in the British Movement. Around this time Hill also began to work in secret for ''
Searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
'', helping to foil an alleged gun-running plot by the BDP. Hill's presence as a double agent in the BM also ensured that their activities were disrupted and that they were subject to several police investigations regarding allegations of planned violence.
By then deputy leader of the BM, Hill clashed with leader
Michael McLaughlin in 1982 and succeeded in splitting the party. Hill, a former boxer in the army with a reputation as a street fighter, had the support of the BM's large
skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...
following and took them with him when he joined the newly launched
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
in 1982 (also convincing Reed Herbert to bring his BDP on board). Indeed, Hill claimed that he had contacted BNP leader
John Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the p ...
, at the time leading a group called the New National Front (NNF), as early as 1981 to discuss forming a new united party. Hill contended that he hoped to bring disparate far-right groups together to sabotage their activity and that ultimately he hoped to challenge Tyndall for the leadership and fight a dirty and highly divisive campaign to increase the sabotage. Hill's activities on behalf of the BNP included a June 1982 attempted takeover of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'', in which he and some supporters disrupted a broadcast by shouting pro-BNP slogans from the audience. At the
for the BNP, receiving 469 votes (1.0%).
which focused on the links between the British far right and international terrorism, as well as plots to launch bomb attacks in London, said to have been planned by the
.
were also heavily implicated in Hill's claims. As well as the British far-right, Hill's revelations also included claims about terrorist involvement of their French counterparts and ''
. Hill's revelations sent shockwaves through the British far-right and encouraged a culture of suspicion. Indeed, soon afterwards when
en bloc to the BNP, Tyndall rejected his overtures for fear that Pearce might also be a "mole".
'' from then on, and in 1988 published a book about his experiences, ''The Other Face of Terror'', with the journalist Andrew Bell. Called as a witness before the
's Commission on Racism and Xenophobia, Hill's evidence included the claim that within the neo-Nazi underground a system of "brown aid" existed for fugitives and those defined by the movement as political prisoners. He contended that he personally had been involved in "safehousing" several far right Italian fugitives during his political involvement.
Hill was also elected as an Honorary Vice-President of the
due to subsequent work he undertook with students.
Hill died on 14 May 2022, at the age of 82.
'' described their former colleague as "that giant of the anti-fascist movement".
*R. Hill & A. Bell, ''The Other Face of Terror- Inside Europe's Neo-Nazi Network'', London: Collins, 1988.