The Borders Tory MP who peddled anti-Jewish propaganda before the outbreak of World War Two denied being a fifth columnist or a saboteur even though the British Government saw fit to have him banged up in jail for more than four years.
Captain Archibald Maule Ramsay had been educated at Eton, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before serving with the Coldstream Guards in the First World War until he was severely wounded in 1916. He was subsequently based at Regimental H.Q., at the War Office and the British War Mission in Paris until the end of The Great War.
In 1920 he became a Member of His Majesty's Scottish Bodyguard. And in 1931 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Peebles and Southern Midlothian, defeating the sitting Labour MP Joseph Westwood by 8,250 votes. But Ramsay's margin of victory was cut to just 1,462 in the 1935 election.
The reasons for his incarceration in Brixton Prison were made public in 1952 when Ramsay published his controversial biographical story under the title The Nameless War.
Ramsay was not charged with any crime after being detained on May 23rd 1940 on returning to London from a fortnight's break in Scotland. But a lengthy 'charge sheet' setting out the particulars justifying his detention was handed to him by the authorities.
The schedule read as follows: The said Captain Archibald Maule RAMSAY, M.P. (i) In or about the month of May 1939, formed an Organisation under the name of the "Right Club," which ostensibly directed its activities against Jews, Freemasons and Communists. This Organisation, in reality, was designed secretly to spread subversive and defeatist views among the civil population of Great Britain, to obstruct the war effort of Great Britain, and thus to endanger public safety and the defence of the Realm.
(ii) In furtherance of the real objects of the Organisation,
the said RAMSAY allowed the names of the members of the Organisation to be
known only to himself, and took great precautions to see that the register of
members did not leave his possession or control ; and stated that he had taken
steps to mislead the Police and the Intelligence Branch of the War Office as to
the real activities of the Organisation. These steps were taken to prevent the
real purposes of the Organisation being known.
(iii) Frequently expressed sympathy with the policy and aims
of the German Government ; and at times expressed his desire to co-operate with
the German Government in the conquest and subsequent government of Great
Britain.
(iv) After the formation of the Organisation, made efforts,
on behalf of the Organisation, to introduce members of the Organisation into
the Foreign Office, the Censorship, the Intelligence Branch of the War Office,
and Government departments, in order to further the real objects of the
Organisation as set out in (i) hereof.
(v) After the outbreak of war, associated with and made use
of persons known to him to be active in opposition to the interests of Great
Britain. Among such persons were one, Anna Wolkoff, and one, Tyler Kent, a
Coding Officer employed at the Embassy of the United States of America. With
knowledge of the activities in which Wolkoff and Kent were engaged, he
continued to associate with them and to make use of their activities on behalf
of the "Right Club" and of himself. In particular, with knowledge
that Kent had abstracted important documents, the property of the Embassy of
the United States of America, he visited Kent's flat at 47, Gloucester Place,
where many of the said documents were kept, and inspected them for his own
purposes. He further deposited with the said Kent the secret register of the
members of the "Right Club," of which Organisation Kent had become an
important member, in order to try and keep the nature of the Organisation
secret.
(vi) Permitted and authorised his wife to act on his behalf
in associating with, and making use of, persons known to him to be active in
opposing the interests of Great Britain. Among these persons were Anna Wolkoff,
Tyler Kent, and Mrs. Christabel Nicholson.
In a statement given to the Commons Speaker and MPs by Ramsay from Brixton
Prison he declared: "All the particulars alleged as grounds for my detention are based on
charges that my attitude and activities in opposition to Communism, Bolshevism,
and the policy of organised Jewry were not genuine, but merely a camouflage for
anti-British designs.
"I became finally
convinced of the fact that the Russian and Spanish revolutions, and the
subversive societies in Britain, were part and parcel of one and the same Plan,
secretly operated and controlled by World Jewry.
"I now took the decision to proceed at once with the
formation of a group similar in character to the group of representatives of
Christian and patriotic societies, which I had worked with up to the emergence
of the Jewish problem ; but this time a group which would place opposition to
that menace in the forefront of its activities. The group was finally
inaugurated in May 1939, and was the Right Club. The first object of the Right
Club was to enlighten the Tory Party and clear it from any Jewish control.
"Together with many members of both Houses of Parliament, I
was fully aware that among the agencies here and abroad, which had been
actively engaged in promoting bad feeling between Great Britain and Germany,
Organized Jewry, for obvious reasons, had played a leading part."
Despite the catalogue of 'particulars' laid against him Ramsay was able to draw his £600 a year MP's salary throughout his lengthy stay in prison.
He did not seek re-election at the 1945 General Election. Labour captured the Peebles and Southern Midlothian seat from the Unionists when David Pryde - defeated by Ramsay in 1936 - achieved victory by 6,496 votes.
Archibald Ramsay died in 1955.
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