Rawnsley British Union of Fascists Collection

Archive reference: BUF

This small archive offers first-hand insights into the life and motivations of Northern members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) through autobiography, fiction and interviews. It was collected by Dr Stuart Rawnsley while researching for his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Bradford, "Fascism and Fascists in Britain in the 1930s".

The collection includes a copy of an unpublished autobiography, "From the Shadows of Exile", by a Lancashire woman, Nellie Driver (1914-1981). Nellie Driver and her mother joined the British Union of Fascists in 1935. Nellie was a district organiser and very active in campaigning. During the Second World War she was interned in Holloway and then on the Isle of Man under Defence Regulation 18b, passed to ensure BUF activists were not a fifth column for the enemy. The archive also includes a novel based on the autobiography, "The Mill".  There are also taped interviews with Nellie Driver and several interviews with other members of the BUF, one of whom, R.R. Bellamy, also contributed an autobiography, "We Marched with Mosley".

Explore Nellie Driver's story in No. 67 of the 100 Objects exhibition: From the Shadows of Exile: Nellie Driver's autobiography.