1 March 2006 releases: Right-wing extremists

Fay Taylour

File ref KV 2/2143-2144

This heavily weeded and reconstituted file deals with the Security Service's interest in Fay Taylour (1908-1983), well known in the inter-war years as an Irish speedway motorcyclist and motor racing driver, who came to the attention of the Security Service because of her extreme right-wing views.

Her support for the British Union of Fascists is noted in KV 2/2143 (1939-1941) which contains the correspondence leading up to her internment in May 1940. The file includes the text of her appeal hearing in August 1940, which was characterised by such peculiarities as her distress at having to appear without a hat (serial 58a). The appeal against internment was rejected. The file includes some of Taylour's intercepted correspondence, including some that she managed to smuggle out of prison to avoid the censor. In one letter to a friend, she said: "I love Nazi Germany and the German people and their leader and this war seems terribly unfair."

The story continues in KV 2/2144 (1941-1953) of which perhaps the most interesting element is the Home Office decision, against the advice of the Security Service, to release Taylour from internment on the Isle of Man in October 1943. The Home Secretary approved her release on condition that she left the UK and resided in Ireland. The Service was worried that she would provide details to the German legation in Dublin of arrangements for internees and particular cases on the Isle of Man.

In the minuting leading up to this decision in June 1943 Taylour is described as "...one of the worst pro-Nazis in Port Erin...she is in the habit of hoarding pictures of Hitler and had in her possession a hymn in which his name was substituted for God's."

Following the war, Taylour resumed her motor racing career, from which she retired at the end of the 1950s. However, as the Irish Times has noted Flying Fay's fast-paced life (17 December 2003), her wartime detention was "airbrushed out of all her publicity".

Dorothy, Dowager Viscountess Downe

File ref KV 2/2146

This slim, heavily weeded file covering 1933-1941 details the Security Service's interest in Dorothy, the Dowager Viscountess Downe, a god-daughter of King George V who was noted as "a most fanatical admirer of Hitler". She was also a secret member of the British Union of Fascists. A warrant was granted to intercept her correspondence, which showed clear evidence that she was in contact with extreme right-wing activists.

Although she was in many respects a clear candidate for internment, this step was not taken, and the reason why is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the file. A minute of May 1940 records: "it was decided that no action should be taken with regard to Viscountess Downe for the present. If too many titled people are arrested the public might get the wrong idea as to the importance of the Fifth Column in this country."

The anomaly of Viscountess Downe's continued liberty was noted in The Times, with a correspondent commenting that "to her amazement and chagrin she was not arrested while the humblest of her supporters were taken" (The Times, Thursday, Nov 14, 1940, p. 2). The file suggests that Viscountess Downe had been involved in having the letter written, and notes "indications" that she was anxious to become a martyr.

The file includes details of the Viscountess' contacts with her local constabulary. It also includes her own suggestion, after she claimed to have seen the error of her ways regarding the Fifth Column, as to how she might warn the police secretly if an enemy parachutist came to her for assistance.