National Socialist Movement (UK, 1962)
defunct British Neo-Nazi group
The National Socialist Movement (NSM) was a British neo-Nazi group formed on 20 April, Adolf Hitler's birthday, in 1962, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy as a splinter group from the original British National Party of the 1960s.
Formation
The 1960s BNP, which had been formed by a merger of Colin Jordan's White Defence League and John Bean's National Labour Party, soon became defined by clashes between the two rival leaders. Impetus for the formation of the NSM came from a 1961 letter to Jordan from George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell stated that he agreed with the BNP, except over their lack of openness about Nazism.
Bean however felt that Jordan and his ally Tyndall were too open about Nazism and argued that this damaged the chances of the BNP making any political headway, an issue which came to a head in February 1962 when Bean presented a resolution condemning Jordan's open Nazism at a meeting of the party's national council. The resolution was passed 7 votes to 5 and, after a struggle, the party split with around 80% of the membership backing Bean and the rest leaving with Jordan. Jordan managed to secure the support of Tyndall and Denis Pirie, whilst also gaining control of the BNP's Notting Hill headquarters and the paramilitary Spearhead group, and on 20 April 1962 the new group was inaugurated at a party to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday. As well as Tyndall and Pirie, Roland Kerr-Ritchie and Peter Ling both resigned from the BNP National Council to support Jordan. The new group's membership was largely made up of young, working class activists.
Activities
With displays proclaiming "Free Britain From Jewish Control", Jordan spoke at a meeting held in Trafalgar Square on 1 July 1962 which led to a riot.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17012087. VIAF identifies the subject as 136298116. The Library of Congress control number is nb2007000361. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962 and 1961.
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