1. John Amery was a British fascist and Nazi collaborator during World War II.
28 Facts About John Amery
1. 2.
John Amery was the originator of the British Free Corps, a volunteer Waffen-SS unit composed of former British and Dominion prisoners of war.
3.
John Amery later gave direct support to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
4.
John Amery was prosecuted by the British authorities and pleaded guilty to eight counts of high treason, for which he was sentenced to death, seven months after the war in Europe ended.
5.
John Amery was a difficult child who ran through a succession of private tutors.
6.
John Amery attended nursery at Miss Ironside's School, whose eponymous headmistress described him as "unteachable".
7.
At the age of 21, John Amery married Una Wing, a former prostitute, but was never able to earn enough to keep her for himself.
8.
John Amery was constantly appealing to his father for money.
9.
John Amery left Britain permanently to live in France after being declared bankrupt in 1936.
10.
John Amery told his family he had joined Francisco Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and was awarded a medal of honour while serving as an intelligence officer with Italian volunteer forces.
11.
John Amery actually worked for Franco as a liaison with French Cagoulard groups and gun-runners.
12.
John Amery remained in France following the German invasion in June 1940.
13.
John Amery resided in the territory belonging to the collaborationist Vichy government led by Marshal Philippe Petain.
14.
Adolf Hitler was impressed by John Amery and allowed him to remain in Germany as a guest.
15.
The idea of a British force to fight the communists languished until John Amery re-encountered Jacques Doriot during a visit to France in January 1943.
16.
John Amery rekindled his idea of a British unit and aimed to recruit 50 to 100 men for propaganda purposes and to establish a core of men with which to attract additional members from British prisoners of war.
17.
John Amery suggested that such a unit could provide more recruits for the other military units made up of foreign nationals.
18.
John Amery's first recruiting drive for what was initially to be called the British Legion of St George took him to the Saint-Denis POW camp outside Paris.
19.
John Amery addressed between 40 and 50 inmates from British Commonwealth countries and handed out recruiting material.
20.
John Amery's drive for recruits found two men, of whom only one, Kenneth Berry, joined what was later called the BFC.
21.
John Amery continued to broadcast and write propaganda in Berlin until late 1944 when he travelled to Northern Italy to lend support to Benito Mussolini's Salo Republic.
22.
On 25 April 1945, John Amery was captured along with his French mistress Michelle Thomas by Italian partisans from the Garibaldi Brigade near Como.
23.
John Amery was wearing the uniform of the "Muti Legion", a fascist paramilitary organisation.
24.
John Amery's sanity was questioned by his own father, Leo, but all efforts to have the court consider his mental state were unsuccessful.
25.
John Amery, I have read the depositions and the exhibits in this case, and I am satisfied that you knew what you did and that you did it intentionally and deliberately after you had received warning from more than one of your fellow countrymen that the course you were pursuing amounted to high treason.
26.
John Amery was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 19 December 1945 by executioner Albert Pierrepoint and buried in the prison cemetery.
27.
In 1996, Julian John Amery had his brother's remains exhumed and cremated, scattering his ashes in France.
28.
Ronald Harwood's play An English Tragedy, charting the weeks leading up to John Amery's execution following his arrest in Italy and trial in London, adapted for radio by Bert Coules, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 8 May 2010 and 13 April 2012.