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{{Short description|Scottish politician and author (1899–1955)}}
{{lead too short|date=May 2018}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2023}}
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{{Infobox person
|name          = Alexander Raven Thomson
|image         = Alexander Raven Thomson.jpg
|caption       = 
|birth_name    = 
|birth_date    = 3 December 1899
|birth_place   = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
|death_date    = 30 October 1955 (aged 55)
|death_place   = London, England
|body_discovered = 
|resting_place = 
|resting_place_coordinates = 
|nationality   = Scottish
|citizenship   = British
|other_names   = 
|known_for     = Fascist politician and writer
|education     = 
|alma_mater    = 
|employer      = 
|occupation    = Mechanical engineer
|title         = 
|party         = [[British Union of Fascists]], [[Union Movement]]
|boards        = 
|spouse        = Lisbeth Röntgen
|partner       = 
|children      = Three
|parents       = 
|relations     = [[Alexander Thomson]] (grandfather)
|callsign      = 
|signature     = 
|website       = 
|footnotes     = 
}}'''Alexander Raven Thomson''' (3 December 1899 – 30 October 1955), usually referred to as '''Raven''', was a Scottish politician and philosopher. He joined the [[British Union of Fascists]] in 1933 and remained a follower of [[Oswald Mosley]] for the rest of his life. Thomson was considered to be the party's chief [[ideology|ideologue]] and has been described as the "[[Alfred Rosenberg]] of British fascism".<ref>R. Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', London: Allan Lane, 1969, p. 117</ref>

==Early life==
Born in [[Edinburgh]], Thomson came from a  family long prominent in Scottish public life and was the grandson of the architect [[Alexander Thomson]].<ref name="Bowd38">Gavin Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland: Caledonia and the Far Right'', Birlinn, 2013 p. 38</ref> Thomson was educated in universities in his homeland, the United States and briefly [[Heidelberg University]] in Germany and studied mechanical engineering, science and philosophy.<ref name="Benewick, op cit, p. 117">Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', p. 117</ref> In 1926, he became a partner in an engineering firm in London<ref name="Bowd38"/> specialising in the manufacture of silver paper, a process that he had learned in Germany.<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 252</ref> During his studies in Germany, Thomson met and married Lisbeth, the daughter of the [[X-ray]] pioneer [[Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen]].<ref>S. Dorril, ''Blackshirt – Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism'', London: Penguin, 2007, p. 252</ref> They would go on to have three children together; Lisbeth already had a daughter from a previous relationship, and Thomson also had a long-term mistress, Olive Burdett.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', pp. 210–211</ref>

Thomson's political career began by joining the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]], but his membership did not last long since he rejected notions of [[historical materialism]] and moved more towards [[corporatism]].<ref name="Benewick, op cit, p. 117"/> Thomson became a leading authority on the works of [[Oswald Spengler]] and in 1932 published the book ''Civilization as Divine Superman: A Superorganic Philosophy of History'', which rejected Spengler's theories about the decline of civilisation and argued that it could be avoided by the rejection of [[capitalism]] and its replacement with [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]].<ref name="Benewick, op cit, p. 117"/>

In that conviction he was influenced by [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], who had written of "insect communities" in which a communal spirit was shared by all members of a "hive".<ref>[[Robert Skidelsky]], ''Oswald Mosley'', Macmillan, 1981, p. 345</ref> The book also marked his drift towards a fascistic outlook.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', p. 39</ref>

==British Union of Fascists==
He joined the [[British Union of Fascists]] in 1933 and soon rose to the post of Director of Policy. There, he became the leading ideological light in the party and a close associate of [[Oswald Mosley]] and [[Neil Francis Hawkins]].<ref>Benewick, op cit, p. 117</ref> In that position, he produced his seminal work ''The Corporate State'' (March 1935, republished as ''The Coming Corporate State'' in January 1937) in which he set out the vision of a BUF government in Britain. Thomson envisaged the formation of 20 [[corporation (feudal Europe)|corporations]], each controlling a specific sector of the economy. The corporations would be further divided up to cover each individual industry and would also feed into a National Corporation, which would effectively form the government. Corporations would have equal representation for employers, workers and consumers, with elections to the corporations taking the place of existing political activity.<ref>Benewick, op cit, pp. 143–150</ref> In 1935, he was sent to his native Scotland on a speaking tour designed to present the fascist message, but most of his engagements were disrupted by communist hecklers, including one at [[Aberdeen]] in which an extended chorus of ''[[The Internationale]]'' from the crowd effectively silenced the BUF speakers.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', p. 45</ref>

Thomson became a leading figure in the BUF and in 1937 represented the party in municipal elections in [[Bethnal Green]] (SW). He won 23.17% of the votes and finished ahead of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] candidates.<ref>Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', pp. 279–282</ref> Although he was not elected, the result marked a good total for the BUF. His status in the party now assured, Thomson became editor of the party weekly, ''[[Action (newspaper)|Action]]'', in 1939.<ref>Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', p. 119</ref>

An important figure in the BUF, he served for a time as Mosley's representative to Germany, a role in which he was closely watched by [[MI5]].<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 317</ref> He shared with the [[Nazis]] a strong [[anti-Semitism]]<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 410</ref> and was generally noted as an admirer of [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>Richard Griffiths, ''Fellow Travellers on the Right'', Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 55</ref> He was part of BUF delegation that attended the 1933 [[Nuremberg Rally]].<ref>Griffiths, ''Fellow Travellers on the Right'', p. 172</ref> He made a total of five extended trips to Nazi Germany.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', p. 209</ref> Despite being one of the public faces of the BUF, he had actually been interviewed by ''[[The Jewish Chronicle]]'' in 1934 and had told the newspaper that the group had no specific enmity towards the Jews.<ref>Skidelsky, ''Oswald Mosley'', p. 385</ref> Thomson also had loose connections to hardline [[Revisionist Zionism]] activist [[Wolfgang von Weisl]], but they were curtailed after von Weisl's superior, [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]], told him to break off relations.<ref>Stein Ugelvik Larsen, ''Fascism Outside Europe'', Columbia University Press, 2001, p. 379</ref>

Mosley admired Thomson for his intellect<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 280</ref> and would later describe him as an "honest man and devoted patriot"<ref>O. Mosley, ''My Life'', London: Nelson, 1970, p. 332</ref> but was also known to criticise him privately as something of a "yes-man".<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 260</ref> In 1937, Thomson wrote that the [[British left]] had enforced "specifically Anglo-Saxon democratic methods of parliamentary governance" upon Ireland to which it was "entirely foreign and distasteful". Thomson also believed that a [[United Ireland]] would occur under fascism, an ideology that was less foreign to the "[[Irish culture|native Celtic culture]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 4051595|title = The Swastika and the Shamrock: British Fascism and the Irish Question, 1918-1940|journal = Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies|volume = 29|issue = 1|pages = 57–75|last1 = Douglas|first1 = R. M.|year = 1997|doi = 10.2307/4051595}}</ref>

After the outbreak of war, Thomson devised a plan to attack the [[Nordic League]] as "Nazi traitors" in the hope of establishing the BUF's patriotic credentials, but that came to nothing and actually ran alongside attempts by Francis Hawkins to establish BUF control over the League.<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 493</ref> Along with most of the other leading members of the BUF, Thomson was detained under [[Defence Regulation 18B]] in May 1940 and interned for much of the [[Second World War]].<ref>Benewick, ''Political Violence and Public Order'', p. 294</ref> He spent his entire jail spell in [[Brixton (HM Prison)|Brixton Prison]], rather than the prison camp on the [[Isle of Man]], which was generally more favourable, until his release in 1944.<ref name="oswaldmosley.com">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080817071302/http://www.oswaldmosley.com/members.htm Biography at Friends of Oswald Mosley site (Archived version)]</ref> Thomson reacted badly to his spell in detention and suffered a [[nervous breakdown]] during his incarceration.<ref>G. Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', New York: IB Tauris, 2007, p. 21</ref> He was released after he had been moved to a camp on the Isle of Man in September 1944.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', p. 212</ref>

==Union Movement==
After his release Thomson set up a number of book clubs across Britain to ensure the continuing spread of Mosley's ideas.<ref name="oswaldmosley.com"/> The book clubs served as planning meetings for the future of Mosleyite politics after the war.<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 554</ref> He also led the Union of British Freemen, a group he set up with the fellow ex-BUF member [[Victor Burgess]] in 1944 as an attempt to bring together former BUF members.<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 39</ref> After the war, Thomson travelled regularly to Ireland to meet Mosley and to discuss political development.<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', p. 553</ref> Eager to expand the base of operations of fascism in Britain he also sought unsuccessfully to forge alliances with the proto-environmentalist [[Rural Reconstruction Association]] through the leading member [[Jorian Jenks]], a former BUF activist, as well as individuals on the fringes of [[Welsh nationalism]].<ref>Dorril, ''Blackshirt'', pp. 585–6</ref>

He joined the [[Union Movement]] on its foundation in 1948 and became a leading figure in the new party as both general secretary and the editor of the UM newspaper ''Union''.<ref name="oswaldmosley.com"/> Playing a leading role in the development of the ideology of the UM, Thomson initially supported [[Europe a Nation]] enthusiastically, but soon tired of the esoteric policy and in 1950 organised a brief and even more unsuccessful return to [[British Fascism|prewar policy]].<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', pp. 54–5</ref> He then came to advocate a "left-wing fascist" approach and argued that the UM should target the working class for support with [[anticapitalist]] rhetoric.<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 63</ref>

As well as his important position within the UM domestically, Thomson was also a central figure in the party's international links. Thomson was sent to Spain in 1949 to try to build up support for Mosley in the country, but the trip was somewhat unsuccessful as he failed to impress the [[falangists]] and had to contend with the negative words of former BUF member [[Angus Macnab]], who had grown to loathe Mosley.<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 99</ref>

Later, Thomson was central in liaising with the [[New European Order]], a group with which Mosley had no official contact with because of his support for the [[European Social Movement]].<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 110</ref> Thomson's international reputation grew further in 1952 when he was appointed to the editorial board of the prestigious ''[[Nation Europa]]'' magazine.<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 111</ref> He also became known as the publisher of Frederick J. Veale's ''Advance to Barbarism'', one of the early pieces of Second World War [[historical revisionism]]<ref>Macklin, ''Very Deeply Dyed in Black'', p. 129</ref> and contributed to ''[[The European (1953 magazine)|The European]]'', a magazine edited by [[Diana Mosley]].

Thomson continued to serve as leading UM figure until his death in 1955 from cancer.<ref name="oswaldmosley.com"/> Thomson, who had lived most of his life in the [[East End of London]], had his funeral service at St Columba's Church, [[Shoreditch]] before he was cremated.<ref>Bowd, ''Fascist Scotland'', p. 248</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{UK far right}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Alexander Raven}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:British Union of Fascists politicians]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:People detained under Defence Regulation 18B]]
[[Category:Philosophers from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:Scottish fascists]]
[[Category:Scottish mechanical engineers]]
[[Category:Scottish newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Scottish political philosophers]]
[[Category:Scottish politicians]]
[[Category:Scottish prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:20th-century British philosophers]]