Charlie Watts (fascist)

Charles Frederick Watts (17 January 1903 – 1971) was a member of the British Union of Fascists who was interned during the Second World War.

Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts with the BUF flag[1]
Born
Charles Frederick Watts

17 January 1903
Croydon, UK
Died1971 (aged 67–68)
Penzance, Cornwall. UK
NationalityBritish
Known forActivist in the British Union of Fascists

In his early life, Watts served as an aircraftsman in the Royal Air Force. He later became a member of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and was an active recruiter. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he was arrested and interned under Defence Regulations and held first at Brixton Prison, and afterwards at Camp 020 at Latchmere House. He was moved to Ascot internment camp in Berkshire, where he became the unofficial camp leader, producing a newspaper titled The Flame and negotiating with the camp authorities on behalf of the inmates.

He was released in 1941 and the following year he was one of those who organised a party to mark Oswald Mosley's birthday at which he made a plea for unity and the Britishness of the BUF. He remained involved with British fascism after the war but admitted that the movement was blocked from reconstituting because of its association in the public mind with the Nazis. His memoir of his wartime detention, "It Has Happened Here" is part of the British Union Collection at the University of Sheffield library.

Early life

Charlie Watts was born in Croydon, Surrey,[2] on 17 January 1903[3] to Alfred Ernest Watts, a chartered accountant, and his wife Lilian.[4] He was christened at St Peter's Church, Croydon, on 29 March 1903.[5] His brother was the master mariner and ship chandler Oswald Watts.[6]

He served as an aircraftsman in the Royal Air Force[7] and was in the reserves until 1936.[8]

Fascism
Flag of the British Union of Fascists
Latchmere House

Watts was a member of the British Union of Fascists (BUF)[9] in the 1930s and rose to be district leader for the Westminster, St George's branch. He was an active recruiter, even converting communists with whom he had recently exchanged blows, such as Arthur Beaven in 1933.[10] He was also the organiser of the BUF cab drivers group which was claimed to have 1,000 members.[11] It was Watts who suggested to his fellow Westminster member Susan Sweney that she become the editor of the fascist newspaper Voice of the People in early 1940.[12][13]

Watts worked for his brother Oswald, at his premises in London's Albemarle Street, and it was there that he was arrested by the British police Special Branch under Defence Regulation 18B (1A) on 23 May 1940 during a round-up of British fascists following the outbreak of the Second World War.[8] He was held first at Brixton Prison before being transferred to Camp 020 at Latchmere House, near Ham Common in Richmond, for interrogation. He was subsequently moved with other BUF members to Ascot internment camp[7] in Berkshire, a hastily arranged facility that BUF members called "Ascot Concentration Camp".[14] There he became the unofficial camp leader, producing a newspaper titled The Flame and negotiating with the camp authorities on behalf of the inmates.[15] He also became close friends with James Larratt Battersby.[14] Their internment fostered a sense of grievance among the BUF members that continued long after the war and, in the case of Watts, has been described by Dave Renton as the defining moment in his life.[16]

Many interned fascists were quickly released by the British government as posing no threat and despite the BUF having been proscribed in 1940, much fascist political structure remained in place, leading to the establishment of many small splinter fascist groups in Britain.[16] Watts was released in 1941 with restrictions on his movements and in November 1942 he was one of those who organised a party to mark Oswald Mosley's birthday (Mosley was interned until September 1943) at which he gave a speech while wearing the by then illegal BUF uniform. He stressed that the British fascist movement should stay united and not splinter into competing groups, and that it was a British organisation and any pro-German members deserved to be interned under regulation 18b. Special Branch filed a report on his speech.[11][17]

After the war, Watts remained involved with British fascism but admitted that the movement was blocked from reconstituting because of its association in the public mind with the Nazis from whom most of the former BUF members disassociated themselves.[15] He wrote in "It Has Happened Here":

We were now being held responsible for and answerable for all the vile Nazi atrocities ... I gradually but surely came to the conclusion that I was not wasting my life on people who were not worth the effort ... I was no longer going to knock my head against a brick wall.[15]

Death and legacy

Watts died in Penzance, Cornwall, in 1971.[3] His memoir of his wartime detention, "It Has Happened Here". The Experiences of a Political Prisoner in British Prisons and Concentration Camps during the Fifth Column panic of 1940/1 (1948) was posthumously serialised in Comrade, the journal of the Friends of Oswald Mosley, from 1986.[18] The copy of the original manuscript is held in the British Union Collection at the University of Sheffield library along with a 1966 update titled "Last Chapter".[19] Official papers relating to his detention are held by the British National Archives.[9]

Selected publications
  • "It Has Happened Here". The Experiences of a Political Prisoner in British Prisons and Concentration Camps during the Fifth Column panic of 1940/1. Serialised in Comrade from June 1986.
  • The Hell of Ham Common: The secrets of Britain's war-time torture camps. European Action, n.d. (With John Warburton)

References
  1. "Sorry – Charlie, Jorian", Comrade, Oct/Nov 1989, p. 5.
  2. Charles Frederick Watts England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837–2008. Family Search. Retrieved 3 March 2020. (subscription required)
  3. Charles Frederick Watts England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007. Family Search. Retrieved 3 March 2020. (subscription required)
  4. Alfred E Watts England and Wales Census, 1901. Family Search. Retrieved 3 March 2020. (subscription required)
  5. Charles Frederick Watts England Births and Christenings, 1538–1975. Family Search. Retrieved 3 March 2020. (subscription required)
  6. Simpson, A. W. Brian. (1992). In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention Without Trial in Wartime Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-19-825949-7.
  7. Warburton, John and Jeffrey Wallder. (2008) The Defence Regulation 18B British Union Detainees List. Revised edition. London: Friends of Oswald Mosley. pp. 17 & 45.
  8. Bellamy, Richard Reynell. (2019) We Marched with Mosley: The Authorised History of the British Union of Fascists. London: Sanctuary Press. pp. 235–237. ISBN 9781913176273
  9. WATTS, Charles Frederick, member of the British Union of Fascists. HO 283/74, The National Archives. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  10. Linehan, Thomas P. (1996). East London for Mosley: The British Union of Fascists in East London and South-West Essex 1933–40. London: Frank Cass. pp. 269–270. ISBN 978-1-136-29971-1.
  11. Thurlow, Richard. (1987) Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-85. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 225. ISBN 0631136185
  12. "Statement of Susan Hilton", Libenau Internment Camp, 30 June 1945 in Susan Dorothea Mary Therese HILTON, KV 2/423, National Archives. (subscription required)
  13. O'Donoghue, David A. (2014) Hitler's Irish Voices: The story of German radio's wartime Irish service. Dromore: Somerville Press. p. 211. ISBN 9780992736408
  14. "It has happened here" by Charlie Watts, Comrade, June/July 1990, pp. 4–5.
  15. Renton, Dave. (1998) The Attempted Revival Of British Fascism: Fascism And Anti-Fascism 1945–51. PhD thesis. University of Sheffield. pp. 39 & 171.
  16. Renton, Dave. (2000). Fascism, Anti-Fascism and Britain in the 1940s. Basingstoke: Macmillan. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-0-230-59913-0.
  17. PRO HO 45/25702
  18. "It has happened here" by Charlie Watts, Comrade, No. 2 (June 1986), p. 2 and later editions.
  19. University of Sheffield. (2019) British Union Collection. Sheffield: University of Sheffield Library Special Collections and Archives. p. 33.
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