The Green Shirts in Leeds

Ro-Man · Post by **Ro-Man** » Mon 13 Jan, 2014 4:18 pm

I've recently been doing some research into a political movement called the Green Shirts which has a strong connection to Leeds and was quite a significant force in the 1930s. The movement began life as the Kibbo Kift, a woodcraft organisation which in many ways was a forerunner of later eco movements. There’s full history of the Kibbo Kift here http://www.kibbokift.org/The Kibbo Kift eventually drifted into political activity and adopted social credit as its ideology. A new party was formed called the Social Credit Party of Great Britain. Basically social credit supporters believed that everybody who engaged in labour deserved a payment back in addition to their wages. This payment should take the form of a national dividend. More detail on the party is available on Wikipdedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Cre ... _IrelandTo cut a long story short, Leeds played a very significant role in this political movement as it was the only city where the Social Credit Party of Great Britain ever stood a Parliamentary candidate. The candidate was called Wilfred Townend and he stood in the 1935 general election in South Leeds. The party had a Leeds headquarters at 11 Beeston Road, which by my calculations is now somewhere under the M621.Wilfred Townend had an interesting Leeds history. He was born in 1899 near Castelford and in 1922 was Assistant Master at Meanwood National School (what is now Meanwood C of E Primary). In 1922-23 he worked at Armley Council School, then at St Silas National School between 1923-25. At some point between 1923 and 1925 he took a job as Divinity Master at Cockburn High School, and moved to South Leeds around 1934 or just after.He joined the Social Credit Party in 1933. The party was known as the Green Shirts because they wore a military style uniform, and Townend wore the uniform at all of his speaking engagements. The party polled 11% of the vote in the 1935 election, which for a fringe party is pretty good going. Lots of Green Shirt supporters travelled up from London to support Townend, and one of the stunts they used was to pay for their £150 election deposit in half crown pieces. They marched through the streets of south Leeds in full uniform with drums and banners.Townend stood again for Parliament in 1945 as an independent candidate in Leeds South East. He died in 1982.It’s a little known part of Leeds history and one which deserves a wider audience. I have more information and a few pictures if anyone is interested. Also, if you have any more information to add please post it.

uncle mick · Post by **uncle mick** » Mon 13 Jan, 2014 4:45 pm

Ro-Man wrote: Lots of Green Shirt supporters travelled up from London to support Townend, and one of the stunts they used was to pay for their £150 election deposit in half crown pieces. They didn't get away with that in Leeds . Taken from The Times 5th November 1935

Ro-Man · Post by **Ro-Man** » Mon 13 Jan, 2014 5:20 pm

Well spotted Uncle Mick!

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Tue 14 Jan, 2014 12:18 am

Thanks Ro-Man,interesting post.I suspect very few people had a knowledge of this.I certainly would count amongst those who didn't.Cheers.

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Tue 14 Jan, 2014 11:50 am

fascinating.The Kibbo Kift were one of the influences on the development of Wicca as they were quite Pagan oriented when founded (sort of a mystical,free love scout movement!).I didn't know about their later changes so many thanks.

Ro-Man · Post by **Ro-Man** » Tue 14 Jan, 2014 4:43 pm

Nice to see some interest in this story.For those of you who want to explore further, there’s a really good account of the Green Shirts in Leeds in this book, the only drawback is it’s about £80.Social Movements and their Supporters: The Greenshirts in England by Mark DrakefordISBN: 978-0333650677Also, there is a Wilfred Townend archive deposited at the London School of Economics. One of these days I might get down there to have a lookhttp://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=COLL+MISC+1217

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Tue 14 Jan, 2014 8:10 pm

actually Googling the Kibbo Kift throws up a lot about the Greenshirts as I found on a quick search at lunchtime.

Ro-Man · Post by **Ro-Man** » Thu 16 Jan, 2014 12:00 pm

You're right that there's plenty of information on the Kibbo Kift out there on the web, but for comprehensive information on the Leeds election this book is just about the only resource available.

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Thu 16 Jan, 2014 7:12 pm

A bit more information from am article in the Brisbane Courier Mail 1935:Green Shirts demonstrated against Mr. Baldwin on his arrival at Central Station, Leeds, to address a mass meeting. A dozen men dashed along the platform, where distinguished citizens had assembled, shouting, 'Down with the bankers' Government.' The Green Shirts are supporting the Social Credit candidate. Mr. Townend, for South Leeds.

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Thu 16 Jan, 2014 7:14 pm

Not quite Leeds,but this link is to a copy of the Keighley greenshirts paper from 1933:http://douglassocialcredit.com/resource ... hirt02.pdf