Rotha Beryl Lintorn Lintorn-Orman (7 February 1895 – 10 March 1935) was the founder of the

British Fascisti The British Fascists was the first political organisation in the United Kingdom to claim the label of fascist, although the group had little ideological unity apart from anti-socialism for much of its existence, and was strongly associated with ...

, the first avowedly fascist movement to appear in British politics.

Early life

Born as Rotha Beryl Lintorn Orman in Kensington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, she was the daughter of Charles Edward Orman, a major from the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

, and his wife, Blanch Lintorn, née Simmons. Her maternal grandfather was Field Marshal Sir

Lintorn Simmons Field Marshal Sir John Lintorn Arabin Simmons (12 February 1821 – 14 February 1903) was a British Army officer. Early in his career he served as Inspector of Railways, Secretary of the Railways Commission and then Secretary of the Railway Dep ...

. The Orman family would adopt the surname of Lintorn-Orman in 1912. Rotha Orman, with her friend Nesta Maude, was among the few girls who showed up at the

1909 Crystal Palace Scout Rally The Crystal Palace Rally was a gathering of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at the Crystal Palace in London on Saturday, 4 September 1909. The rally demonstrated the rapid popularization of Scouting with an estimated 11,000 boys attending with the pr ...

wanting to be

Scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

which led to the foundation of the

Girl Guides Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

. In 1908 they had registered as a Scout troop, using their initials rather than forenames. In 1911 she was awarded one of the first of the Girl Guides' Silver Fish Awards. In the First World War, Lintorn-Orman served as a member of the Women's Volunteer Reserve and with the Scottish Women's Hospital Corps. She was decorated for her contribution at the

Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 250px, The fire as seen from the quay in 1917. 250px, The fire as seen from the Thermaic Gulf. The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 ( el, Μεγάλη Πυρκαγιά της Θεσσαλονίκης, 1917) destroyed two thirds of the city of T ...

but invalided home with malaria. In 1918 she became head of the

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...

Motor School to train drivers in the battlefield.

Fascism

Following Lintorn-Orman's war service, she placed an advertisement in the right-wing journal ''The Patriot'' seeking

anti-communists Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

. This led to the foundation of the

(later the British Fascists) in 1923 as a response to the growing strength of the Labour Party, a source of great anxiety for the virulently anti-Communist Lintorn-Orman.Thurlow, ''Fascism in Britain'', p. 34. She felt Labour was too prone to advocating class conflict and

internationalism Internationalism may refer to: * Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism * International Style, a major architectur ...

, two of her pet hates. Emblem of the British Fascists

Financed by her mother Blanch, Lintorn-Orman's party nonetheless struggled due to her preference for remaining within the law and her continuing ties to the fringes of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Lintorn-Orman was essentially a Tory by inclination but was driven by a strong anti-communism and attached herself to fascism largely because of her admiration for Benito Mussolini and what she saw as his action-based style of politics. The party was subject to a number of schisms, such as when the moderates led by

R. B. D. Blakeney Robert Byron Drury Blakeney, generally known as R. B. D. Blakeney (18 April 1872 – 13 February 1952), was a British Army officer and fascist politician. After a career with the Royal Engineers, Blakeney went on to serve as President of the Bri ...

defected to the

Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies was a British right-wing movement, established in 1925 to provide volunteers in the event of a general strike. During the General Strike of 1926, it was taken over by the government to provide vit ...

during the

1926 General Strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governme ...

or when the more radical members resigned to form the

National Fascisti The National Fascisti (NF), renamed British National Fascists (BNF) in July 1926, were a splinter group from the British Fascisti formed in 1924. In the early days of the British Fascisti the movement lacked any real policy or direction and so th ...

, and ultimately lost members to the Imperial Fascist League and the British Union of Fascists when these groups emerged. Lintorn-Orman wanted nothing to do with the BUF as she considered its leader, Oswald Mosley to be a near-communist and was particularly appalled by his former membership in the Labour Party. The feelings were reciprocated, with

Nicholas Mosley Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale, 7th Baronet, MC, FRSL (25 June 1923 – 28 February 2017) was an English novelist. Life Mosley was born in London in 1923. He was the eldest son of Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, a British politician, ...

(whose father,

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

, founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932) would claim that she got the idea to save Britain from communism one day while she was weeding her kitchen garden. Nonetheless, the BF lost much of its membership to Mosley’s party after Neil Francis Hawkins left in favour of the BUF in 1932 after a formal merger was narrowly rejected.

Final years

Lintorn-Orman was dependent on alcohol and drugs, and rumours about her private life began to damage her reputation. Eventually her mother stopped funding her after hearing lurid tales of drink, drugs and orgies. Lintorn-Orman was taken ill in 1933 and was sidelined from the British Fascists, as effective control passed to Mrs D. G. Harnett, who sought to breathe new life into the group by seeking to ally it with

Ulster loyalism Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a u ...

. Lintorn-Orman died at the age of 40 on 10 March 1935 at

Santa Brígida, Las Palmas Santa Brígida is a town and a municipality in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria in the Province of Las Palmas of the Canary Islands. Its population is 18,791 (2013),Canary Islands. By then her organisation was all but defunct. Her body was buried at the English Cemetery in Las Palmas.Entry for Rotha Lintorn-Orman in the Findagrave website (2019).
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Bibliography

*''"Feminine Fascism": Women in Britain's Fascist Movement'' by Julie V. Gottlieb (I.B. Tauris, 2000) *''"Hurrah for the Blackshirts!": Fascists and Fascism in Britain between the Wars'' by

Martin Pugh Martin John Pugh is a British guitarist who came to prominence after joining blues-rock band Steamhammer in 1968, staying with that band through 5 years and 4 albums. The debut Steamhammer album, also known as '' Steamhammer'', was released ...

(Random House, 2005)

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lintorn-Orman, Rotha 1895 births 1935 deaths British monarchists People from Kensington English fascists English women in politics Recipients of the Silver Fish Award Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service volunteers