18 Facts About Andrew Fountaine

Andrew Fountaine was an activist involved in the British far right.

Andrew Fountaine was involved with a number of fringe rightist movements before becoming a founding member of the National Front in 1967.

Andrew Fountaine had several roles within the party and was involved in a number of internal feuds until he left in 1979.

Andrew Fountaine briefly led his own splinter party before retiring from politics.

Andrew Fountaine drove an ambulance for the Abyssinians during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

Andrew Fountaine then fought for Francisco Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War, before enlisting in the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman during the Second World War.

Andrew Fountaine served in the Pacific as Gunnery Officer on the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable, attaining the rank of Lt-Commander, before being invalided out after a Kamikaze attack in April 1945.

Nonetheless, no official Conservative candidate was nominated to take his place, and, as a result, Andrew Fountaine finished only 361 votes behind the winning candidate, Labour incumbent Clifford Kenyon.

Andrew Fountaine would follow John Bean out of this group, and was a founder member of the National Labour Party.

Andrew Fountaine remained a strong supporter of Bean and supported him in his later struggles with Colin Jordan in the earlier British National Party in the 1960s, with Andrew Fountaine acting as party president.

Andrew Fountaine largely disappeared from view for some years after this, although during the internal struggles of 1974, which saw Tyndall as leader pitted against a newly emerged group of populists, pro-Tyndall elements claimed that Andrew Fountaine had secretly been conspiring with Roy Painter, at the time recognised as the leader of the populist faction.

Andrew Fountaine agreed to work with Tyndall, and at the 1975 conference proposed one of Tyndall's favoured ideas, changing leadership elections from the existing system of National Directorate members only to a party-wide vote, a motion that was narrowly defeated.

Andrew Fountaine returned to public notice under Tyndall and was adopted as the party's candidate for the 1976 Coventry North West by-election.

The new movement was short-lived as Andrew Fountaine became disillusioned with the far right's in-fighting.

Andrew Fountaine retired from politics in 1981 to concentrate on growing trees on his estate Narford Hall, northwest of Swaffham, and remained there until his death in 1997.

Andrew Fountaine's book Meaning of an Enemy was serialised in John Bean's magazine Combat from 1960 to 1965.

Note: Although Andrew Fountaine was the candidate of the local Conservative Party in 1950 his candidacy had been disavowed by the party at national level.

Andrew Fountaine had a son and a daughter from his first marriage, which lasted from 1949 to 1960, and another son from his second marriage, which lasted from September 1960 to his death in 1997.