Captain Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay

1894 - 1955

Fascist, imprisoned for treason during the Second World War. Born in India into a notable Scottish family, Ramsay was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, which led to military service in the Coldstream Guards. He fought in the First World War, during which he was wounded in France and awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. A wealthy land-owner, Ramsay owned Kellie Castle (Arbroath) together with a home in London.

In the 1920s, Ramsay's views became clear when he spoke out against communists and Jews. In 1931, he was elected as the Unionist Member of Parliament for Peebles and South Midlothian. In the late 1930s Ramsay regularly addressed parliament on the subject of "the Communist menace". At the same time, he became prominent in a campaign to denounce Katharine, Duchess of Atholl (1874 - 1960), who had spoken out against fascism and the terror and misery which it had caused in Spain.

A supporter of Nazi Germany and principal organiser of the fascist and anti-Jewish 'Right Club', Ramsay was arrested in 1940 and held in Brixton Prison (London) for the duration of the War. Unfortunately Ramsay was not a lone voice; sympathy for fascism was rife within the upper classes of Britain. The depression of the 1920s had tended to polarise political opinion towards the left and communism or the right and fascism. Ramsay was made an example of by the authorities but many other senior members of the aristocracy, including several Scots, were firmly told to keep their views to themselves.

He published a book discussing his own theories on world events and internment, called The Nameless War in 1952.

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