“Blue-Blooded Exuberance” or Fascists? The Impact of the March on Rome on the Radical Right in Britain (1922–1926)

This chapter examines the impact of the March on Rome in Britain, focusing on the beliefs and practices of Miss Rotha Lintorn-Orman’s British Fascisti, the National Fascisti, and other minor movements formed in apparent imitation of Mussolini’s regime. It highlights the radicalising effect of the March on Rome on the multitude of radical right and patriotic groups that sought to counter the post-war resurgence of industrial militancy. Particular attention is given to how the public and emotional appeal of these anti-labour organisations was reinforced by sectors of the conservative Right, which incautiously hailed Italian fascism as an antidote to Bolshevism and as a “working model” for combating anarchism, “criminal syndicalism,” and the “revolutionary” subversion of existing economic and moral orders. The chapter not only analyses the various manifestations of fascist imitation in 1920s Britain but also develops a new interpretive lens to examine the “seismic waves” generated by the March on Rome and to assess their depth of penetration – and the anomalies they produced – within the political culture(s) of the British Right. It further explores the immediate defensive measures authorities deemed necessary to enact or revive in response to the perceived menace of fascist contagion.