Robert Row (1915–1999) was an English fascist from Lancaster, a member of

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 ...

's British Union of Fascists (BUF) who was detained by the British government under

Defence Regulation 18B Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was one of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during and before the Second World War. The complete name for the rule was Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regula ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After the war, he wrote and edited British fascist publications and remained a believer in Mosley until his death.

Early life

Robert Row was born in 1915. His father worked for

Waring & Gillow Waring & Gillow (also written as Waring and Gillow) was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool. Background Gillow & Co. The fir ...

and was sent to Cuba to decorate the House of Assembly. He left school in 1931, by his own account during the Sterling crisis of that year, when Britain left the

Gold Standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...

. In 1998, he recalled a succession of low-paid jobs and an environment of boarded-up shops in his local high street during his youth: "The times were desperate and after more of the same I joined the Blackshirts in 1934" (the BUF)."Testimony of faith" by Robert Row in ''Comrade'', No. 48, 7 February 1998, pp. 2–3.

Fascist career

's British Union of Fascists, Row saw policies that would put Britain first and "banish the slump". He became highly active in the movement, but with the outbreak of the

, he was detained by the British government under the newly-introduced

.Warburton, John & Jeffrey Wallder. (2008)
The Defence Regulation 18B British Union Detainees List
'. Revised edition. Friends of Oswald Mosley. p. 7. He spent time at Walton prison and was also held for a time at a prison camp near

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which ...

, where the most prominent inmate was John Beckett. Both associated freely during their incarceration, although they argued regularly. Beckett had left the BUF in 1938. He was released late during the war, joined the British Army and served in Palestine. After the war, Row worked as an agricultural labourer in Surrey and began to send articles to ''Union'', the organ of the

Union Movement The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Uni ...

, the successor to the BUF. The editor, Alexander Raven Thomson, appointed Row as deputy editor of ''Union'' in the 1950s; Row became the editor after Thomson's death in 1955. The paper became ''The National European'' in 1964 and ''

Action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

'' in 1966 before the Union Movement also changed its party name to Action in 1973. He was editor of all of those titles until the closure of Sanctuary Press in 1992. He also edited ''Lodestar'' with

Jeffrey Hamm Edward Jeffrey Hamm (15 September 1915 – 4 May 1992) was a leading British fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley. Although a minor figure in Mosley's prewar British Union of Fascists, Hamm became a leading figure after the Second World War a ...

from 1985 to 1992. Row was assaulted or intimidated several times during his fascist activities. In 1963, six young men of the antifascist Yellow Star Movement broke into the Union Movement headquarters at 302

Vauxhall Bridge Road The London Inner Ring Road, or Ring Road as signposted, is a route with an average diameter of formed from a number of major roads that encircle Central London. The ring road forms the boundary of the London congestion charge zone, although t ...

and assaulted Row and Keith Gibson, the Union Movement's political secretary. All six were arrested and later fined (one aged 16 was bound over) at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to assault and causing damage to property. According to testimony, Row was made to kneel on the floor and rip up copies of ''Action''."Editor "Made To Kneel", ''The Times'', 5 June 1963, p. 16. Both Row and Gibson required hospital treatment. Soon afterward, according to ''

Comrade The term ''comrade'' (russian: товарищ, tovarisch) generally means 'mate', 'colleague', or 'ally', and derives from the Spanish and Portuguese, term , literally meaning 'chamber mate', from Latin , meaning 'chamber' or 'room'. It may also ...

'', he was attacked again by the same group on his way home from work. Row was close to Raven Thomson politically and in the early 1950s supported his view that the

should move closer to neo-Nazism, which was gaining some support in Germany, rather than Mosley's unpopular "

Europe a Nation Europe a Nation was a policy developed by the British fascist politician Oswald Mosley as the cornerstone of his Union Movement. It called for the integration of Europe into a single political entity. Although the idea failed to gain widespread ...

" policy. Later, with

, he was a key figure in Action. Increasingly, in the postwar decades, Row through his writings became a unifying force for the dwindling and aging band of former BUF members, as the movement engaged less in political action and more in rhetoric and nostalgia for the BUF.

Death

Row remained a committed fascist until his death and continued to contribute to publications of the offshoots of the BUF until the end, such as ''Comrade'', newsletter of the

Friends of Oswald Mosley The Friends of Oswald Mosley (FOM) is the last vestige of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) and its successors, the Union Movement and the Action Party. History The Friends of Oswald Mosley was formed in 1982. It represents the las ...

. He died in 1999 after a minor operation at 83. His ashes were scattered by his niece in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

at a site on which he and his brothers cycled in his youth."One of those Blackshirts", ''Comrade'', No. 53, December 2000, pp. 2–3. He never married.

Selected publications

*''Union Movement – The answer to the slump''. Union, London, c. 1948. *''Sir Oswald Mosley: British patriot and national European''. European Action, n.d. *''The coloured question in Britain: Cause and solution''. Sanctuary Press, n.d.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Row, Robert 1915 births 1999 deaths English members of the British Union of Fascists English newspaper editors English male journalists English prisoners and detainees British Army personnel of World War II British military personnel of the Palestine Emergency People from Lancaster, Lancashire Fascist writers People detained under Defence Regulation 18B British Army soldiers Military personnel from Lancashire