Fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to explain further why, but for now here's a picture of Tom Driberg. I don't expect you to know who he is. I didn't until just now. Initially a member of the Communist Party, and openly gay when it was incredibly illegal, Driberg became Chairman of the Labour Party in 1958, but there's a lot more to know about him than even that. Here's a brief extract from the wikipedia entry where I found his picture:
One of Driberg's elaborate hoaxes was a concert called "Homage to Beethoven", which featured megaphones, typewriters and a flushing lavatory. Newspaper accounts of this event raised the interest of the occultist Aleister Crowley.
But that's not why I was resarching Tom Driberg either. I was researching him because his was the name which turned up when I searched "MP Driberg 1946," which I did after reading this point of order recorded in Hansard on the thirteenth of March 1946...
I never really think about 1946. As I say, hopefully more to follow. Click to enlarge.
FASCIST ACTIVITIES (ALBERT HALL MEETING)
HC Deb 13 March 1946 vol 420 cc1113-4 1113The following Question stood upon the Order Paper in the name of Mr. Driberg:
137. To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that a public demonstration is to be held at the Albert Hall, on Wednesday, 13th March, by a body known as the Britons' Vigilantes Action League; and if, in view of the fact that much of the propaganda of this League is identical with that of our enemies in the late war and of the consequent likelihood that a breach of the peace will be provoked, he will prevent this demonstration from taking place.On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the urgency and the possible far-reaching effect of any reply which may be given, can we have an oral answer to Question No. 137?Mr. SpeakerMr. DribergFurther to that point of Order, Mr. Speaker. Should I be in Order in raising on the Miscellaneous Financial Provisions Bill this afternoon the question of this Fascist demonstration?That is a matter for the Chairman of the Committee. It has nothing to do with me.May I, in view of the urgency of this matter, ask your leave, Mr. Speaker, to move the Adjournment of the House on a definite matter of urgent public importance—that is, the revival of Fascism in this country and the public demonstration by Fascists which is due to take place at the Albert Hall tonight?That is hypothetical, and I cannot accept it.Back to Women's Garments (Down pointing)
... And that's what turned up when I searched "the Briton's Vigilantes Action League," which I did because they're mentioned on the front page of the Daily Mail from the sixteenth of March 1946, in a story entitled "Police crushed by Communist demonstrators," and I know about that because it's currently a prop in Love Goddess.
Beware! Tom Driberg will open an entire rabbit warren for you including most of the artists of Fitzrovia. One of my favourites was Nancy Cunard. Her biography by Anne Chisholm is well worth finding if you haven’t come across her yet. Abe Books usually have copies, or I have one you can read. She was an amazing woman.
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DeleteMy interest came from a letter written to him by Evelyn Waugh prior to a 1960 BBC interview in which Waugh was interrogated by former Labour MP John Freeman. It strongly suggests that his old school friend was fully aware of Driberg's MI5 activities. More intriguingly Waugh wrote to Driberg in respect of William F Buckley seemingly fishing for information.
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