John Bean
| John Bean | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Edward Bean 27 June 1927 Carshalton, Surrey |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Known for | Activist |
| Political party |
Union Movement Conservative Party League of Empire Loyalists National Labour Party British National Party National Front British National Party British Democratic Party |
John Edward Bean (born 7 June 1927) is a long-standing participant in the British far right, who has been active within a number of movements.
Born in Carshalton, Surrey, at the age of 13 he suffered the trauma of being bombed out with his family living in Blackfen, Sidcup, February 1941. Bean claims that he briefly flirted with communism whilst at school, calling for support of the Soviet Union. His initial fervour soon faded and by the time he began his National service in 1945, Bean was largely apolitical. Initially he was a trainee navigator in RAF Volunteer Reserve and later as a sailor in the Royal Navy. Bean became a radar mechanic and was placed on HMS Bulawayo a fleet supply ship which made several visits to Trinidad until the finish of his naval service in June 1948. He briefly lived in India during 1950 to work as a chemist in a paint factory, although he failed to settle and returned to Britain six months later.
Upon his return, Bean began to attend meetings of the Union Movement, being attracted by the Europe a Nation policy and by the time Oswald Mosley had spent in prison for his beliefs. Bean initially served as a member of the Special Propaganda Service, the main duty of which was to sell copies of the party's newspaper Union. Soon however he became a leading figure active on behalf of the UM in the East End of London, before being appointed to head up a branch in Putney in 1952. Despite these advancements, Bean grew disillusioned of the UM's chances of making any real headway and he left them altogether in February 1953. A brief stop-over in the local Conservative Party in Barnes that followed lasted only two months.
After a spell on the sidelines he then linked up with Andrew Fountaine, who had been attempting to form his own party, the National Front, and began to produce a journal, National Unity. His work attracted the attention of A.K. Chesterton and, with the National Front idea failing to get off the ground, he decided to join the League of Empire Loyalists, serving as its Northern Organiser and then in the HQ in London. Continuing to produce his paper, now called The Loyalist, Bean soon became frustrated at both the lack of political activity and the links to the Conservative Party that were the hallmarks of the LEL, and so left in 1957 to set up the National Labour Party with Fountaine. Fountaine, a Norfolk landowner from a patrician family, was officially President of the new group although he was largely a figurehead: control actually lay with Bean.
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