Union Movement

Union Movement was founded in 1948 when over 50 separate organisations came together under the leadership of Oswald Mosley. Most parts of the country had Area Organisers. These areas were broken down into branches. For example the North West Home Counties Area was controlled by a pre-war member, Ron Webb. His branches consisted of Watford, Harrow, Wembley, Luton and, from time to time others. Small groups not large enough to be branches were in existence in Uxbridge, Ealing, Barnet etc etc. There was also an annual camp held at Beenham,which is between Newbury and Reading. In a similar way West London was led by Martin Malony, South London by Tom Prince North London by Fred Shepherd and East London by Sid Bailey.

Local council elections, including elections for The Greater London Council were often contested and the average vote gained was about 8%. Often higher, sometimes a little lower. Manchester had two branches as did Birmingham. Bristol, Poole, Southampton, Salisbury, South Wales and Hull often featured in Union Movement news items. Other events that generated publicity were the Battle of Ridley Road in Dalston, East London, The North Kensington Election, the Uxbridge By-Election and the unsuccessful attempts to prevent the growth of the movement in 1962 by the thuggery and violence of left wing extremists. These events all brought in new supporters..