Harold Sherwood Spencer
| Harold Sherwood Spencer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Harold Sherwood Spencer 1890 Wisconsin |
| Nationality | US; UK |
| Occupation | naval officer; soldier; writer |
| Years active | 1914-1923 |
| Notable work |
The Cult of the Clitoris Democracy or Shylocracy |
Harold Sherwood Spencer (born 1890, date of death unknown) was an American-born British anti-homosexuality and antisemitic activist during and after World War I. He was closely associated with Noel Pemberton Billing and Lord Alfred Douglas.
Born in 1890, Spencer was a native of the American state of Wisconsin, but his family were British. He studied at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he was known for his active cultural interests. Shortly after leaving he married a countess who was "nearly twice his age", but the relationship was short lived. After a "stormy encounter in a New York hotel", the couple separated. He subsequently travelled widely with the rank of midshipman, and worked occasionally as a war correspondent.
He volunteered to serve in the British army during World War I. He was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1915, rising to the rank of Captain. He served on three fronts and became involved with the British Secret Service. However, his increasing obsession with the idea that the Germans were conspiring to sexually corrupt British civilians led to his being invalided out of the army in 1917 on grounds of mental instability, diagnosed with "paranoid delusional insanity".
He was soon writing for the journal Imperialist, founded by Noel Pemberton Billing. In 1918 he convinced Billing to publish an article which claimed that 47,000 Britons were being blackmailed by Germans to "propagate evils which all decent men thought had perished in Sodom and Lesbia". It was said that names were listed in the "Berlin Black Book" of the "Mbret of Albania". A second article, attacking the actress Maud Allan for her alleged association with the conspiracy, led to a sensational libel case, at which Spencer stood as a witness for Billing. Spencer lied in court, claiming to have obtained evidence of German and Austrian plans to blackmail British citizens while working for an Austrian aristocrat in Albania before the war. Billing won the case.
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